Sunny Europe, based in Antwerp with operations in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany, has maintained a close relationship with the crew of seagoing vessels for over 35 years. The company supplies these professionals with a wide range of duty-free products in multiple ports, either through its webshop or via onboard representatives. For efficient planning of sales and delivery, Sunny Europe uses, among other tools, Ship2Port to obtain accurate vessel information.

The challenge
Accurate information on vessel arrival and departure times, as well as exact berth locations, is crucial. In addition, each onboard visit must be pre-announced in advance. These are daily, time-consuming actions that require accuracy and consistency.

The solution
Royal Dirkzwager developed two dedicated web services for Sunny Europe to retrieve vessel information and handle visitor registrations. The data is processed within Sunny Europe’s own ERP system, allowing direct integration with planning, sales and delivery processes. When an employee is scheduled to board a vessel, the pre-announcement is automatically forwarded via Ship2Port to the relevant terminals.

The result
This automated solution saves Sunny Europe significant time in retrieving information and announcing onboard visits. By reducing manual steps, the number of errors has decreased dramatically, resulting in more efficient and reliable operations.