Kett Shipping was a transportation company that operated in the Rseik sector during the reign of the Galactic Republic. They primarily transported ore and nova crystals out of the planet Cotellier and up the Sanrafsix Corridor to the planet Kabal. There they would pick up agricultural supplies, grain or any other goods they could make profit with back on Cotellier.
The company suffered considerable losses to pirates during the tenure of Findal Kett as its owner. At the time of Kett's ownership, the Rseik sector had almost no Galactic Republic presence, and so piracy was rampant with no one to oppose the criminals. In one year Kett shipping lost four of six convoys to the Fujari pirates of Tertiary Fujar, who ransomed back three of them and sold the fourth as slaves to the Karazak Slavers Cooperative. In the following year, only one of five Kett Shipping convoys that left for Kabal returned to Cotellier. In an attempt to avoid the Fujari, Kett the diverted his convoys to travel along the Little Minos Run instead, but after several years of this another pirate group known as the Hajara gang began working out of the planet Corva Yag and capturing Kett's convoys.
In 214 BBY, an outbreak of the Bordal Contagion disease on the world of Bordal drew the attention of the Republic, who manufactured an antidote on the world of Tauber. Kett Shipping along with several other organizations active near Bordal sent convoys to collect and deliver the antidote. Kett Shipping's convoy never reached Bordal as it was attacked by the Fujari, which caused all six million samples of the antidote on board to be lost.
This disaster led to Kett and a large number of other local interests, including Rseikharhl Hullspace, Cotellieri Transports Limited and the Ma'ar Shaddam Weaponsmiths Guild, to approach the Trade Federation for aid. Kett and the others arranged a secret meeting with a Trade Federation agent on the planet Syned, and the following day all parties agreed to become Federation subsidiaries. Now protecting their own interests, the Federation established a military presence in the Rseik sector and quickly destroyed the Fujari pirates, followed by the Hajari gang a week later. Within a decade, thanks to the Federation's improvements in the area, Kett Shipping was successfully running twenty convoys a year to Kabal and losing none.
Thanks to the security and increase in business the Federation brought to Kett Shipping, the Kett family were able to live well, purchasing interests on the worlds of Ma'ar Shaddam and Rseik and a retreat on the planet Z'trop. Findal Kett's great-great-great-grandson Firmus Kett, who served as a captain in the Federation's Trade Defense Force, spoke of the company's history in his memoirs. He admitted to feeling that Trade Federation control over the Rseik sector had grown to worrying levels by his lifetime, but considering what had happened before the Trade Federation came, he would never begrudge Findal Kett's decision.
Kett Shipping was supposed to be first mentioned in The Essential Guide to Warfare, a sourcebook released in 2012 written by Jason Fry and Paul R. Urquhart, but they were ultimately cut from the final product. The section including the company was later published as part of Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Warfare Author's Cut, a series of articles published on the StarWars.com blog starting in 2013.
- The Essential Guide to Warfare