By John Jordan
The current logistics market’s strength in spite of supply chain disruptions, high interest rates and rising inflation is being fueled by continued strong consumer spending, e-commerce and industrial real estate investment. Forecasters have noted that the U.S. logistics market was valued at $45 billion in 2021 and is projected to reach almost $90 billion by 2028. It is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate of 7.9% from 2021 to 2028.
Orange County, NY’s strategic location is the prime reason why it is a premier location for warehouse/distribution development as well as logistics-oriented enterprises. Recently, Resources and Results met with the leaders of home-grown Aden Logistics Corp. of Montgomery— Nick Fitzpatrick, 41, president and Joshua Kemmerer, 41, director of operations. The company, which has a motto “‘Positive, Prompt, and Proactive” was founded five years ago and while it focused on putting its systems in place the first three years, the company has grown significantly in the past 24 months, company officials said.
Aden Logistics is a 3PL (third-party logistics) provider that offers outsourced freight logistics services, the majority of which involves surface transportation (trucking). The firm, headquartered at 574 Route 416 in Montgomery, is a full-service trucking company and logistics broker that offers climate-controlled, dry-box, flatbed and other carrier services for 48 states and Canada. The company employs workers across the U.S. on a hybrid-work arrangement and also maintains an office in Columbia. Fitzpatrick noted that the company will soon be opening a new office location in Bath, NY in the Southern Tier region of the state.
In just five years, Aden Logistics has become a significant player in the logistics space and has ambitious growth plans going forward. Fitzpatrick noted that in its first three years of business it grew its annual sales revenue to $5 million. However, in the last two years annual sales have increased to nearly $35 million. He projects that the company will ratchet up sales beyond $150 million by the end of 2025.
“Once the company was established and our systems were in place, we started gearing up for growth,” Fitzpatrick noted.
The company, which currently employs 40 workers, has 122 customers in the food & beverage, building materials, steel, agricultural and other industries that it distributes goods and products for throughout the country. The firm has a vast network of carriers, mostly trucking firms it contracts with involving thousands of vehicles. The company also has relationships with a host of drayage carriers that pick-up freight at port locations. Fitzpatrick said he hopes to increase Aden Logistics’ workforce to 100 in the next two years.
Fitzpatrick explained, “Our firm’s job for our customers is to work with them to solve their transportation challenges whatever they may be. Our job is to put together the trucking and transportation needs and get the goods delivered in a way that really takes all that work and stress off the customer’s back, allowing them to have peace of mind and do what they do best”
He added that Aden Logistics can perform as needed logistics services or serve as a third-party and be responsible for all of their transportation functions.
“At a time of transportation uncertainty, Orange County has a local provider that is ready and able to ease some of the supply chain worries for companies,” Kemmerer related.
He noted that during the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, Aden Logistics was able to provide work for trucking companies that saw a 70% reduction in food transport business.
Kemmerer said, “Brokers were a very big part of providing truckers with business.” He noted that working on their behalf, Aden was able to provide them with freight business. “Even when COVID hit and the food service sector died, everyone remembers all the empty shelves (at the grocery stores), a big part of that was because these companies couldn’t get food from a manufacturer to a warehouse and from a warehouse to a store quick enough. So, as a broker we were able to solve challenges and provide that value to them.”
He said his firm was able to connect carriers with their shippers “to keep their companies alive” and work with the shippers to ensure they had the vehicles and the drivers to ship the freight in a timely fashion.
Fitzpatrick said that as part of its growth plans the company is “hiring all the time” and has a recruiting team to find the right workers.
“Logistics is a very tough business, it’s not for everybody,” he noted. “So, we don’t expect everybody we hire is going to be able to put up with the continuous problem-solving challenges that go along with being a transportation professional.” The company does hire entry-level workers and they provide training. Fitzpatrick noted that no one goes to college to get a degree in logistics. Thus, the need for training.
The current state of the logistics market is very good, according to Fitzpatrick. “The outlook for the business is great,” he said. “Logistics is a growing industry and is expected to grow tremendously over the next five to 10 years, especially as there is an increase in manufacturing in the United States.”
Fitzpatrick, an Orange County native, said that while his company could be headquartered anywhere, he always felt Orange County was the best place to do business. “I have extensively traveled throughout the U.S. and I always came back to Orange County and said, ‘I’m located in one of the nicest spots.’ I really like it here and it’s a great place to be and I have no intention of changing that.”
One interesting data point about Aden Logistics is that the company delivers salt to most of the municipalities in the Hudson Valley, amounting to around 300,000 tons of salt in the winter season, involving 10,000 dump trucks making as needed winter deliveries.
Fitzpatrick is also a principal in Aden Brook, a farming business, and Aden Landholdings, both of Montgomery. Fitzpatrick’s Aden Landholdings sold the property that is now home to Medline’s nearly 1.4-million-square-foot distribution facility in the Town of Montgomery.
