by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
The last time you likely read the name Magnus Lindeback he had just given President George W. Bush a tour of his company’s facility on Blount Island. Lindeback’s company, Coastal Maritime, was exactly what Bush was looking for when he came to Jacksonville last spring – a small, growing company that epitomized what’s possible if you work hard.
Lindeback is from Finland and he came to the United States 30 years ago. He says he’s been on the ocean and around shipping all his life.
“I could sail before I could walk,” he said.
Lindeback is a captain who proudly asserts he can do every job at his company, from piloting a cargo ship to operating a forklift. He’s also CEO of one of the top stevedoring companies that leases space from the Jacksonville Port Authority. And, what exactly is stevedoring?
“We load and unload ships,” said John Mullins, the company’s vice president of marketing and logistics.
These days Coastal Maritime has contracts with eight ocean carriers and loads and unloads goods going to or coming from dozens of ports of call, including Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Lindeback says business will only get better when Asian shippers Mitsui and Hanjin are both bringing in over 800,000 containers a year.
Lindeback started Coastal Maritime in 1995, but the company went by the name Scandinavian South Marine Corporation for three years prior and it was co-owned by someone else. And, there wasn’t much to it. When now CFO Kathy Wiley went to work for Lindeback, the company was about as small as one can get.
“There were two of us and $3,000,” said Wiley.
Wiley joined the company thanks to the failure of two previous temporary employees. She had just graduated from college and moved to Jacksonville. Wiley went to work for a temp agency, which placed her with Lindeback’s company.
“I was running around like crazy and needed help,” said Lindeback, explaining one assistant lasted a week and the next managed two. “Then Kathy came on board and I said, let’s see how long this will last. That was 18 years ago.”
The company’s big break came when it landed a $200 million contract with SeaBarge, a weekly barge service to Puerto Rico. However, that money didn’t last long.
“I had no idea what I was doing, but we had a lot of fun and made a lot of money for the owner,” she said. “In a year-and-a-half, he blew all the money.”
Today, Coastal Maritime has 250 employees and clients from every corner of the globe. Much of that growth can be attributed to Mullins, who has been with the company for six years.
“I was at UNF getting my degree in accounting and working here part-time. My future father-in-law was working here,” said Mullins. “I was near graduation and I was making more here part-time than I would full-time with an accountant firm.”
Without question, part of the company’s success can be attributed to the credibility Lindeback brings as owner and CEO. He didn’t buy his way into the stevedoring business, he worked his way. Lindeback was at one time the youngest captain of a cargo vessel for the company he worked for in Finland. Eventually, the Finnish economy began to suffer and Lindeback was looking at a demotion and cut in pay. He pondered a year in Germany and a year in London to learn the shore side of the shipping business, then a move to the States. Neither Germany nor London happened.
Lindeback brought his work ethic and experience to the United States and today he oversees one of the top companies at the port. Coastal Maritime signed a 20-year lease three years ago and leases 24 acres. The company owns its container handling equipment, which includes 10 container stackers, dozens of forklifts up to 52,000 pounds and a 100 ton shore crane. Overall, the company operates over 100 acres of Marine Terminal property and has over 100,000 square feet of warehouse space and direct access to CSX railroad.
Lindeback said one of the keys to his company’s success has been consistency.
“Don’t try to grow too fast. Don’t try to run around after all the business in the world,” he said. “If you lose that business, you will never get it back.”
All three said the two new shippers represent an opportunity like no other, not just for Coastal Maritime, but for all of Northeast Florida.
“It will affect us in a good way. It will affect the whole region in a good way,” said Lindeback.
“We are becoming more like the Atlanta airport,” said Mullins, explaining how tripling the number of containers brought into Jacksonville each year will make the port and its tenants seem as busy as Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport, which is the busiest in the world.
“The big carriers don’t want to call on several ports,” said Lindeback. “They want to concentrate on one. The Port Authority has done a fantastic job. In my 30 years, this is by far the best administration.”
The clients and the ports of call
Coastal Maritime has contracts with eight major shippers and deals with a customer base that is all over the world. The following are their customers and the ports of call.
Sea Freight Line
Aruba
Barbados
Bonaire
Curacao
Cayman Islands
Grenada
Guyana
Haiti
Jamaica
Panama
Surinam
Trinidad
Venezuela
Sea Star Line
San Juan, Puerto Rico
St. Thomas
St. Croix
Antigua
St. Kitts
St. Maarten
Tortola
TransAtlantic Lines
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba
Nordana Lines, Mediterranean Service
Alexandria, Egypt
Algiers, Algeria
Beirut, Lebanon
Casablanca, Morocco
Genoa, Italy
Istanbul, Turkey
Leghorn, Portugal
Mersin, Turkey
Mostaganem, Algeria
Piraeus, Greece
Tarragona, Spain
Tripoli, Libya
Tunis, Tunisia
Valencia, Spain
Frontier Liner Services
Puerto Rico
Rio Haina, Dominican Republic
Barranquilla, Colombia
Cartagena, Colombia
Gulf Africa Line
Cape Town, South Africa
Durban, South Africa
Maputo, Mozambique
Beira, Mozambique
Richard’s Bay, South Africa
Zululand, South Africa
Nordana Lines, West Africa Service
Cabinda, Angola
Lobito, Angola
Luanda, Angola
Cotonou, Benin
Douala, Cameroon
Pointe Noire, Congo
Matadi, Democratic Republic of Congo
Bata, Equatorial Guinea
Malabo, Equatorial Guinea
Libreville, Gabon
Port Gentil, Gabon
Takoradi, Ghana
Tema, Ghana
Conakry, Guinea
Abidjan, Ivory Coast
Monrovia, Liberia
Apapa, Nigeria
Onne, Nigeria
Dajar, Senegal
Free Town, Sierra Leone
Lome, Togo
Oldendorff
Richard’s Bay, South Africa
Other ports by inducement
356-2466