Pandemic business
Brilliant business idea: student Jake Slinn buys abandoned shipping containers and gets rich with it
What happens to me containers that nobody wants? Jake Slinn wondered.
© fotog, -Tetra-Images / / Picture Alliance
Thousands of containers stranded in the pandemic. Jake Slinn makes his fortune with them. Three years ago he started his company in his parents’ bedroom with £ 400 in capital.
In the pandemic, the residual stock trade flourishes. Firms buy surplus goods from dealers and then sell them on. You are benefiting from the pandemic that has forced many retailers to give up. There is also a growing market of abandoned containers. Because of the pandemic and the closure in the Suez Canal, there are known stoppages in global supply chains. This also means that the whole world is full of containers that do not get to their recipient – or at least not on time.
Containers cost money
And these containers become a problem, because they get stranded in some container terminal in the world and then cost money. If no owner reports, the owners of the systems want to get rid of this dead cargo that is occupying their valuable storage space as quickly as possible.
And this is where the Briton Jake Slinn comes in. After school, at the age of 19, he looked for a job and founded “JS Global Cargo & Freight Disposal” – the imposing name belied the fact that the company resided in a corner of his parents’ bedroom. His starting capital was £ 400. With that, Slinn began buying up and reselling the contents of unwanted freight containers. Or, if that doesn’t work, to dispose of it.
Purchase according to the files
“Blind” purchases are usually made in the shop. That said, Slinn doesn’t actually look at the container beforehand. From the papers, however, the buyer usually knows what is inside. And can guess what condition it is in. Some containers have valuable cargo. Slinn recently purchased 4500 “facial saunas” that steam the skin. Others simply contain trash that needs to be disposed of. In a container, Slinn found 50,000 breast implants that were not allowed to be used, they were shredded and burned. Every now and then there are surprises, for example when the container was used to smuggle. A full-grown car was found in a steel box that was declared for household goods.
Food gone bad
The biggest hit in the pandemic is expired and spoiled food. They are worst able to take delivery delays. Slinn’s worst case scenario was a 50-ton load of bananas in broken refrigerated containers that had been stored for three weeks and completely decomposed in the sun. When he opened the containers, a wave of stinking banana juice spilled out. The food is fermented industrially to produce methane gas. Slinn now processes 20-50 tons per week. The cost of a container can vary widely, from £ 1,000 to £ 100,000. All in all, slinn makes good profits. In 2022, three years after the company was founded, he aims to achieve sales of more than a million pounds.
Source: telegraph