Norholm started with one customs clerk and one secondhand truck. It still runs the same way: one desk books the space, clears the entry and puts the box on our own truck.
Trucks of our own1
1974
Erik Norholm leaves the port’s customs office and opens a clearing agency above a ship’s chandler on Walton Road, with one secondhand tractor unit.
1979
A Leicester footwear importer hands us its Hong Kong boxes: about twelve forty-footers a month, cleared at the desk and delivered on our own truck.
1986
We buy a former ship’s stores on Ferryboat Lane and put the brokers, the bookings and the drivers’ office under one roof.
1991
Two side-lifters for customers with a yard but no loading dock. They still run about a fifth of our deliveries.
1998
A 2,800 m² bonded shed at Trimley St Martin, four miles from the port, so goods can wait under bond until the duty is due.
2004
The twenty-first tractor unit joins and haulage control starts working through the night, seven days a week.
2016
A second shed, ten-metre racking and six dock doors, so a box can be devanned the day it lands.
2022
After the EU border the customs desk grows from five brokers to eleven, and every import entry moves to the Customs Declaration Service.
2026
The thirty-eighth tractor unit joins the fleet. Still one desk, still on Ferryboat Lane, still one file per shipment.
We own the three things that usually go wrong between a ship and a warehouse: the trucks, the shed and the people who sign the customs entry.
Every Norholm box leaves the port on one of our own trucks, planned by a control room that sits next to the customs desk.
Two sheds at Trimley St Martin, four miles up the A14. Goods are devanned, checked against the packing list and racked under bond until you call them off.
Eleven brokers in Norholm House draft the entry while the ship is at sea and lodge it before it berths, so most boxes are released at discharge.
Every lane has a lead with a direct line. If they are on another call, whoever picks up sits beside them and can see the same file.
| Lead | Lanes | At Norholm | Direct line |
|---|---|---|---|
 Claire AshdownFar East import desk | China, Korea, Vietnam | 23 years | 01632 960421 |
 Iain MurdochExport and excise | USA, India, bonded spirits | 30 years | 01632 960433 |
 Ravi BhandalCustoms brokerage | Import and export entries | 14 years | 01632 960447 |
 Sofia MarchettiHaulage control | Felixstowe, Gateway, Southampton | 9 years | 01632 960452 |
Out of hours, haulage control answers on 01632 960419
Three standards we work to, and who comes in to test them. Copies of our current certificates are sent with every credit application.
Our customs and security procedures have been reviewed by HMRC. Entries we lodge are treated as lower risk, and Trimley is approved to hold goods with duty suspended.
Checked byHMRC, on a rolling review
Every file follows written procedures, from how the verified gross mass is sent to who may release a box. An outside auditor tests them once a year.
Checked byIndependent auditor, every year
Our trucks and drivers are accredited under a national fleet operator scheme: annual driver training, cyclist safety kit on every unit and fuel use reported.
Checked byScheme auditor, every year
Norholm House is two minutes from Dock Gate 1. Shippers are welcome to sit in with their lane for a morning, or to walk the racking at Trimley.
Desk open 07:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday
We take people on most years: Class 1 drivers with container experience, trainee customs brokers and import desk coordinators.
jobs@norholm.co.uk