Art Vandelay founded the desk as an importer/exporter.

The firm is Vandelay Industries. The work is getting other people's goods across a border that has a regime, not a slogan. We do not make the coffee, the tequila, the tableware, or the design goods. We move them, and we make the file behind them correct before anyone is asked to take delivery.

We are a specialist house. We are not a steamship line, a customs authority, or a bank. We sit in the middle with Harborline, Cascade, TransPacific, AeroSwift, Keystone, and Atlas when the shipment needs them, and we say plainly which part of the job is ours and which part belongs to someone with a licence we do not hold.

If you have heard the name before, yes. He is still an importer/exporter.