“About 25 years ago, we had cruise companies ask us for support. We now have a dedicated business unit for the cruise industry,” said Mark Dowling, vice president of global partnerships at Tower Supplies.
After assisting Carnival UK with sourcing the company, which supplies PPE, workwear, safety equipment and hygiene products, now finds that most of its business comes from the cruise industry.
“We are no longer just a vendor; we are a manufacturer. We have global logistics. It’s the end-to-end solution that cruise lines need nowadays … they know many brands and consolidators; they know where their ships are, but they need someone who can piece that all together,” Dowling said.
Standout Solution
Dowling told Cruise Industry News that ships require thousands of containers of personal paper onboard, products used in the cabins or restrooms like facial tissue, paper napkins and toilet tissue, and all products that Tower Supplies offers.
The ESG benefit of these is that they are locally sourced but can be distributed globally in large volumes, he siad.
“We also offer disinfectant and sanitization solutions,” he added.
The European business supplies globally but works in the free trade zones, meaning that Tower Supplies protects cruise companies from taxes, duties, liabilities and changing administration dynamics, Dowling explained.
“There will be many partners that cruise companies might use in America whose goods aren’t produced in America. But if it’s not held in the FTZ, they could be subject to further duties,” he said.
He noted that cruise companies have varying delivery strategies, and this was something that the company has also accounted for.
“One cruise company says, ‘Tell me where you can deliver in bulk to ships,’ whereas another says, ‘Tell me when you can deliver to my warehouse. You have to understand and appreciate and deal with both,” he added.
Trust and Confidence
Dowling said that cruise lines need to be able to trust and have confidence in their suppliers; they won’t risk just switching to another either.
Specific needs for sourcing often involve deployment.
Tower Supplies was able to directly deliver toilet paper to two of Royal Caribbean’s European-based ships that was produced in Italye without delivering to a warehouse or consolidator.
“We talked about how we can deliver it alongside the ships without going via factories and storing up in the UK, Spain, Greece and Italy, where they had wanted to load it,” Dowling explained.
He added that cruise companies are paranoid about the toilet paper product flushing and dissolving, for example. And this is for a good reason.
According to Dowling, a toilet not flushing will have a domino effect because of how a ship’s piping system is designed. A deck of suites can be affected by a single blockage, which would have a significant negative impact on guests.
“We test our paper, but with experience, we have enough cruise customers that once you have a tested product, you don’t change it.”
Consistency is Key
The company’s focus is keeping a high level of consistency.
“We make sure that we can offer products on the same level as hotel consumable products and that, as a business, we can be available all year round,” he said. “People need to uphold the guest experience, and we want to make sure that they have the simplest processes and ways of doing that.”
