World Direct Shipping startup at Port Manatee is becoming a giant killer
To say that the growth of World Direct Shipping has been unconventional is an understatement as vast as the Gulf of Mexico itself.
For one thing, the owners of the company, the Blazer family of Atlanta, are better known as owners of the huge Dekalb Farmers Market in Decatur, Ga.
For another, the public face of World Direct Shipping in Manatee County, Carlos Diaz, set out to be a professional baseball player.
Even so, World Direct Shipping, based at Port Manatee, has become the fastest growing import container line in the United States, now ranking 29th in size nationally, according to the Journal of Commerce.
World Direct started business at Port Manatee in 2014 with a single vessel making weekly voyages to the Mexican port of Coatzacoalcos, to import agricultural goods into the United States.
Since then, World Direct has added two more vessels and extended its service to include Tuxpan, the closest commercial port to Mexico City, as well as Tampico, in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
“Seldom has a company like this had such success,” said Carlos Buqueras, executive director of Port Manatee.
World Direct Shipping’s cargo volume rose 90 percent from 2018 to 2019, with total throughput reaching nearly 50,000 twenty-foot-equivalent container units, according to Diaz.
“World Direct Shipping has enjoyed a solid, trusted partnership with Port Manatee from the beginning,” Diaz said. “As our operations have expanded, the port has worked diligently to keep pace with our needs.”
Diaz, 55, the child of immigrant parents who fled Fidel Castro’s Cuba after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, grew up in New Jersey, attended Oklahoma State University on a baseball scholarship, earned an accounting degree, and played eight years as a catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals and Milwaukee Brewers organizations.
He has lived on the west coast of Florida for more than 30 years, and also serves as a city commissioner in Safety Harbor.
Diaz got into shipping in 1994 when he joined Lykes Brothers, a Florida corporation with huge land holdings and a shipping operation. His work with Lykes in the business development side took him around the world.
So why launch World Direct Shipping at Port Manatee? It’s the closest port to the Mexican ports, closer even than those at Port Tampa, Diaz says.
“Port Manatee saves us time, and they have been flexible in working with us,” he said.
All of which aids the shipping startup in importing fruits, vegetables, sugar, wood products, and appliances from Mexico. World Direct specializes in refrigerated cargo, dry containerized cargo, heavy equipment, vehicles and building and raw materials.
From Port Manatee, the food products go not only to the Atlanta area but to restaurants and supermarkets across the East and Midwest.
World Direct Shipping recently extended its agreement with Port Manatee through 2026, a contract worth more than $8 million, including dockage, wharfage and related charges.
“Port Manatee is delighted to expand its mutually beneficial relationship with World Direct Shipping,” Buqueras said. “This latest agreement provides assurances that support sustained investments by both the port and WDS.”
The latest vessel to enter World Direct service is the 430-foot-long M/V Queen B II, which made its first arrival at Port Manatee on Jan. 10. The M/V Queen B II joins a similar WDS-owned containership, the M/V Queen B, as well as the chartered 456-foot-long AS Laeticia.
The M/V Queen B and M/V Queen B II are to be dedicated to the weekly services from Coatzacoalcos and Tampico, while the slightly larger AS Laeticia is deployed on Tuxpan sailings.
Asked whether there might be more expansion in the future, Diaz said the company is now in a consolidation mode.
“We have been in such a growth spurt. The next phase is to stabilize the operation,” he said.
What World Direct Shipping has done is to create a highway between Port Manatee and Mexico, bringing more opportunity and jobs, and improving the quality of life for both, Diaz said.
For more information about World Direct Shipping, visit http://www.worlddirectshipping.com/
