Paid in Full – Sessions UK Delivers Major Equipment to Bangladesh
17 July 2024
Sessions UK is steeped in a rich 200-year history. From its origins as a producer of labels for businesses in the city of York, it has evolved into a designer and manufacturer of highly specialised equipment for labelling containers of all types, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.
“Mostly we sell to the UK market, but we handle some large export orders too” said Technical Sales Director Simon Davy (pitured below).
The company’s most exported piece of technology is an essential piece in the production line for MDIs (metered dose inhalers), better known as the “puffers” commonly used to dispense asthma medication.
The MDI aerosol test and label machine, does far more than just stick labels. It tests the spray, accepting or rejecting the spray can automatically; it weighs the can; prints and applies a label; visually checks that the label is correct; camera checks the print; and finally inserts the can into its plastic actuator - and it does this 60 times every minute.
One of Sessions’ regular pharmaceutical partners is in Bangladesh. It placed an order for the first of these machines in 2020, followed by a second in 2021, and then, after a delay due to the Covid pandemic, a third towards the end of 2023.
Managing payment risk
International payments are a risk that need to be carefully managed, which is why Sessions UK entrust any work involving “letters of credit” to Chamber International’s Roy Broadhead, a specialist worthy of the name, with over 40 years’ experience in this field. Roy was instructed to negotiate a “documentary letter of credit” worth £335,000 – the value of the order. As such, the customer’s bank in Singapore committed to pay the amount in full, on sight of certain documents approved by the customer, proving that the equipment had been shipped.
However, after work had begun on this third machine, the customer requested a delay, throwing a proverbial spanner in the works. The terms had to be renegotiated: now £100,000 was agreed on as a downpayment, followed by the remainder via letter of credit.
Paid in full
By November 2023, Session’s factory in York had built the equipment; it had also been subject to a successful “factory acceptance test”, witnessed by the customer’s technical team remotely, from Bangladesh. Within weeks, the equipment arrived safely in Bangladesh, and the remainder of the money landed in Sessions’ UK bank account.
“Roy is great to work with”, said Davy. “He really does make this task an easy process for Sessions UK, and his continuous attention throughout the process is very much appreciated by us all”.
ITC is preparing a UK trade mission to Bangladesh from 24-27 September, and the deadline for applications is 31 July.
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