Supreme Freight Services Ltd: A Smarter, More Flexible Approach to Business Telephony

Supreme Freight was established in 1986 by Christopher Green as a family operated business. They are the largest privately owned freight forwarder in the Solent area and the 31st largest business in the Solent 250 rankings. From their headquarters in Southampton, with regional offices in Felixstowe, Heathrow, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Shenzhen they provide full spectrum freight forwarding and customs brokerage services to clients worldwide. 

Albacore have provided our full portfolio of IT services to Supreme Freight for more than 15 years. Supreme have enjoyed consistent growth throughout their history but they saw and grasped the opportunity that Brexit presented, which accelerated growth significantly. 

Albacore’s Teams phone solution was first adopted by Supreme when they opened a satellite office very near to their current HQ in early 2021. A number of staff at the new location, as well as directors and key personnel who worked between locations and from home, enabled Albacore’s Teams phone offering alongside their existing phone system. Used predominantly on mobile phones and computers but with some handsets, this initial rollout of Teams phone allowed them to audition the system and get a feel for the flexibility and functionality it offers. As well as powering their out of hours service, other UK based and offshore users were added gradually to the solution as the satellite office grew and the national lockdowns of 2021 came and went. 

By 2022 Supreme Freight had outgrown their HQ and satellite offices and were seeking to relocate all operations to a single building. The decision was made to roll out the Teams phone system for all users across the entire organisation well in advance of the site move. Albacore worked with Supreme Freight to restructure and redesign their phone system auto attendant menu, their incumbent phone provider to migrate their existing number pools into the Teams system, and we planned the go-live and switchover of their live numbers. Albacore ensured all users had access to, and were familiar with, the Teams phone system. Albacore provide all ongoing administration and support of the solution across all client devices. 

Adding voice calling embeds Teams within the organisation but it’s much more than a phone system. By leveraging presence, chat, polls, collaborative co-authoring of Office documents, or any of the multitude of third party integrations, Teams becomes the heart of the modern workplace. 

“I’ve worked with the Albacore team for many years – Supreme Freight have grown alongside them in many ways and they remain a key partner. I needed a more flexible phone system at a fixed per user price and Albacore have more than delivered on that. I really enjoy the flexibility of Teams. Like everyone, my mobile is always on me but with the Teams phone system I can give out my office number or my direct dial number and I take back control of the calls I answer and where and when I answer them.” 

Supreme Freight Services Ltd
Ashley Archdeacon – Director