In the beginning of its activity the company was chartering and acting as ship agent to 1500 GRT vessels, mainly general cargo. Later it moved to containers forwarding. Since 1995 it started servicing mainly containers forwarding. Beginning of 1996, after signing a contract with the representative of "Philip Morris" PLC for Bulgaria, "Planet Shipping" Ltd. transferred its main activity to excise goods by providing their customs representation and forwarding through the country to the domestic market, duty free shops and the countries neighbouring Bulgaria. In 1997, the company has signed a contract with the representation of Jim Beam Brands Co. and has licensed the first in the country bonded warehouses for excise goods, keeping and handling therein products of Philip Morris, RENAULT-BISQUIT, as well as products of Jim Beam Brands Co.
The main companies serviced during that period and our counteragents have been "Philip Morris USA" PLC and their counteragents "Intco Trade" LTD, "Backlight" LTD, "Intco Brands" LTD; "British American Tobacco" PLC, through their representations in Bulgaria; "Allied Domecq" PLC, through "Bilyana" LTD; "James B. Beam Distilling "Co. through "Intco Brands" LTD; JTI Group and other large companies.
In 1999, "Planet Shipping" Ltd. acquired a license for customs agent No. 30-1/26041999 by the Ministry of Finance and Customs Agency with the right to perform its activity in 19 customs offices in Bulgaria. During those years, the main employees of the company were highly specialized in the legislation concerning excise goods handled through Bourgas Customs, Customs Office "West – Fish Port", Customs Office "Port Centre" and other customs divisions in the country as an adequate answer to the quick changes in the legislation, fast and due time finding solutions to the cases we have been facing.
In 2002, because of the Maxxium Worldwide entering Bulgarian market, an agreement was reached and part of company’s employees have been assigned to "Maxxium Bulgaria" Ltd. logistics and the manager of the company was appointed as Logistics Manager in the same company. "Planet Shipping" EOOD continues to service its counteragents, as well as to attract also new companies, such as "Duty Free" LTD, "Agrosoft-1991" LTD, "Ralfex" LTD, etc.
In April 2004, the company passed through several consecutive stages of reorganization in view of the changes in the legislation and after its re-registration as "Planet Shipping Agent" Ltd. it re-negotiated with the representations of the serviced companies by adding to its clients new ones, such as "Karellia Tobacco Co.", "Diadgeo" Ltd., "Seita Group Altadis" ULE, China National Tobacco Co. and undertaking their entire servicing from the organization of the deliveries, through the selection of carrier, providing the container to the loading point, organization of inland transport, customs formalities and transport to the loading port, until the delivery of the container to the destination port, customs agency and forwarding to the end consignee.
Since October 2007, all employees in "Maxxium Bulgaria" Ltd. logistics department, including their Logistics Manager, have been again reassigned as employees of "Planet Shipping Agent" Ltd. and both companies signed a contract for services as an outsource logistics company. All products and available goods of "Maxxium Bulgaria" Ltd. are under our responsibility, their servicing being subject to the norms and requirements of "Maxxium Worldwide" set forth in the contract. "Maxxium Bulgaria" Ltd. is an exclusive and official distributor of the following alcohol beverages brands: Absolut, Jim Beam, Remy Martin, Cointreau, Tequila Sauza, Tullamore Dew, Famous Grouse, Campari and others for the territory of Bulgaria.
"Planet Shipping Agent" Ltd. disposes of employees, which are some of most familiar in Bulgaria with European legislation in the field of customs, forwarding and maritime law by cooperating and working hard with partners, such as "Maersk Line", "K-Line", "MSC", "Bulcon", ZIM Integrated Shipping Services LTD, "M&M", and others.
The company started at the beginning of its operations in the town of Bourgas recognizing the advantages of that Black Sea Port, the largest and most modern in Bulgaria and one of the largest on the Balkans. Bourgas Port has at its disposal the most contemporary engineering in Bulgaria for handling general and bulk cargoes, as well as containers. That is why we chose Bourgas for our operations taking into account all prerequisites for its future development, offering by now the following possibilities:
"Planet Shipping Agent" Ltd. is offering individual solutions to its clients depending on their needs of providing competent and fast solutions and of high quality services at any stage of the cargoes haulage and handling. Existing port facilities and their usage by our company are rendering the possibility of handling almost all kinds of bulk and general cargoes, containers and trailers and some liquid chemical products at the specialized berth No. 20A. Loading-discharge services include discharge and loading on vessels and land transport means. Additional and handling attending services are lashing and unlashing, sorting, palletization and depalletization, containerization and decontainerization, etc.
"Planet Shipping Agent" Ltd. disposes and serves of warehouses with total area of 3230 sq m, on the territory of the Port of Bourgas, licensed as temporary, bonded and excise, with bank guarantee for their servicing, with secured additional 24 hours lifeguards from the Police Signal and Security Engineering Department and the necessary number of employees in order to respond to the needs of any company that have shown interest to the best company in the complete customs and logistics servicing of excise and other goods in Bulgaria. The opening is pending of a new excise warehouse with the appropriate securing and meeting all effective European norms and directives.