Toronto, May 11, 2011 — Bassett & Walker International, Inc. has won the inaugural HSBC Leadership in International Trade in Latin America Award.
As part of the Business without Borders program, the HSBC International Business Awards honours Canadian companies that have successfully branched out beyond our borders.
“Latin America has a rich history, economy and culture and is expected to be home to one of the world’s largest economies by 2050,” said Mark Watkinson, Senior Executive Vice President, Head of Commercial Banking, North America, HSBC. “HSBC Bank Canada salutes the accomplishments of Bassett & Walker International, Inc. which is successfully doing business in this region.”
Bassett & Walker International Inc.’s CEO Nicholas Walker, credits proprietary trading technology, strong client relationships, and longterm vision with the company’s ability to achieve success in this segment. Walker said, “While we actively trade in more than 50 global markets on a daily basis, our leadership in trading high quality meat, dairy, fish and soya bean products in Latin America, comes from more than 20 years experience in the region. We have a deep understanding of our client needs, trade and political policies affecting the movement of agricultural commodities, trends affecting consumption, and use of first in class, proprietary, trading technology that allows us to squeeze the inefficiencies out of traditional ways of conducting international trade.”
To be eligible, firms must be majority Canadian owned (50.1 percent); headquartered in Canada; generate at least 10 percent of their revenue from activities outside of Canada; and have minimum sales of CAD $2.5 million for each of the last two fiscal years. Full eligibility requirements are available on www.bwob.ca/awards. Applications were selected by a judging committee drawn from Canadian Business magazine, The Globe and Mail Report on Business, Import Export Canada, the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, and the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. PwC Canada performed due diligence on all the finalists.
About the HSBC International Business Awards
The HSBC International Business Awards are an important, new awards program that will honour Canadian firms that have made a real difference in taking their products and services to the world. The Awards were bestowed in the following categories: the HSBC International Business of the Year Award, Small and Medium Enterprise, the HSBC International Business of the Year Award, Large Enterprise, the Leadership in International Trade in Asia-Pacific, and the Leadership in International Trade in Latin America. The program was created in conjunction with Business without Borders, Canada’s newest and best source of news, analysis and practical information for companies reaching beyond this nation’s borders.
About HSBC Bank Canada
HSBC Bank Canada, a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc, has more than 260 offices, including over 140 bank branches, and is the leading international bank in Canada. With around 7,500 offices in 87 countries and territories and assets of US$2,455 billion at 31 December 2010, the HSBC Group is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organizations.
About Business without Borders
Canada’s newest and best source of news and information to help businesses grow internationally, Business without Borders was created and developed by HSBC Bank Canada in association with Rogers Publishing Ltd and the Globe and Mail. Business without Borders provides news, analysis, tools and inspiring profiles of Canadian businesses exporting, expanding their operations and sales abroad or relocating operations in other countries.
About Bassett & Walker International, Inc.
Bassett & Walker International, Inc. (BWI) is a global leader in the procurement and sale of agricultural commodities. BWI is the principal buyer and seller specializing in the international trade of meat, fish, dairy and vegetable protein products, and their respective derivatives.
BWI acts as principal buyer and seller of these goods, thus maintaining, and controlling quality, competitive pricing, and in-contract delivery fulfilment. BWI has more than 180 cumulative years of experience servicing a global clientele in more than 55 countries. Due to the global nature and scope of our 24/7 activities, BWI is recognized as market maker for many of these goods.
BWI delivers value to primary producers and processors in the food and pharmaceutical sectors by removing risks associated with international trade including: payment risk, trade policy risk, quality risk, delivery risk, documentation risk, counter-party risk, and currency risk. BWI provides each client with customized solutions tailored to specific requirements including:
- Daily and deep market intelligence and market opinion,
- Liquidity to the marketplace,
- Financing and currency options, and
- 100% in-contract product fulfilment and service.
Full service, in-house, logistical support combined with proprietary, web-based technology, provides seamless delivery fulfilment from documentation compliance and preparation to scheduling and tracking of product from any point of origin in the world to any point of delivery in the world, according to contracted terms. This ensures that our clients’ production schedules are met, wherever in the world the products are produced or processed. Clients have recognized BWI’s ability to deliver, real time, account information including shipment tracking, as the best-in-class. BWI supports the client with a dedicated, live account specialist for any questions they may have.
BWI delivers high-quality, cost-effective solutions to the global producing and processing communities, enabling each to focus on their respective core competencies, and maximize their capital investments.
