Pilots branch out, get around Christmas tree delay
Strike at US port delays shipment of festive firs, but founders of Xmastree Online use airline connections to bring in consignment
A pair of quick-thinking pilots used their airline connections to save Christmas for Hong Kong after port strikes in the US threatened to blight the festive season by cutting off the supply of trees.
Cathay Pacific pilots Sven Schuetz and Roland Janisiw first set up Xmastree Online after hearing complaints about the quality of trees available in the city. But their plans hit trouble when a consignment of 1,800 firs was held up by industrial action on the US west coast.
However, the pair used their aviation contacts to beat the strike and fly in 200 trees.
"We said it's our first season and we had quite a few pre-orders and we can't let these people down, so we pulled a few strings," said Schuetz, a German who set up the company with his Austrian colleague.
The firm was told on November 23 that its three-container shipment of Oregon-grown firs and wreaths was delayed for nearly three weeks and would not arrive until today.
Local customers demand trees as early as the end of November, tree sellers told the .
Schuetz said they would not pass on the cost of air freight to customers, but declined to put a price on the exercise.
"At first we thought [the shipping delay] was a big negative and of course our margin is much less, so the money we will make on these first trees is much less."
Schuetz said restaurants and other companies looking for trees for Christmas parties had emailed the company pleading for help after their orders with other suppliers were delayed.
The company charges HK$1,199 for a tree up to seven feet (2.1 metres) tall, with delivery available for HK$119.
Asa Candussi Wilkins, who bought a tree from Xmastree Online, said it was the best she'd had in her 12 years in the city, a fact she put down to its freshness after arriving by air. "At least this time I got something nice for my money. Normally you pay the same amount but for a half dead tree, so I was very happy," the Danish national said.
Suppliers she had used before told her they would receive reduced deliveries in the middle of this month because of the strike.
But Schuetz has no plans to fly in more Christmas trees, unless stock sells out.
Hong Kong imported some 22,000 Christmas trees last year, with the majority coming from the United States, Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department figures show.
The majority of the trees are sourced from the US Pacific northwest, which also supplies fir trees for much of the rest of Asia. Most of those would pass through the Seattle area.
Contract negotiations between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association resulted in a 60 per cent slowdown at the port, Reuters reported last month.
