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Cardinal…the early years
The Cardinal story began in April 1980 in Concord,
NC, a small town located just outside of Charlotte,
NC. It was then that Cardinal Freight Carriers, Inc.
was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carolina
Freight Corporation to handle full truckloads for the
company. In August 1995, Carolina Freight (a.k.a. Worldway,
Inc.) along with the subsidiary division of Cardinal
Freight and its’ common fleet of 14 tractors
was purchased by Arkansas Best Corporation.
Then in 1997, Cardinal Freight and its’ parent
company were acquired by GTCR Golder and Rauner – a
Chicago-based private equity firm. In a move to better
align the strategic direction of the company’s
core services, Cardinal Freight was renamed Cardinal
Logistics Management, Inc-. Today, with headquarters
still located in Concord, N.C., Cardinal continues
to evolve and has grown from a small trucking company
to one of the industry’s most trusted and respected
integrated logistics and transportation companies in
the business.
Veteran leadership team expands
Cardinal’s core focus
Much of Cardinal’s success can be attributed
to the veteran executive management team led by Chairman,
Vin McLoughlin; CEO -Tom Hostetler and President and
COO - Jerry Bowman.
As Cardinal has evolved through the years so has their
core business focus. In 1999, Cardinal extended their
service capabilities to encompass dedicated delivery
activity following the acquisition of a popular Atlanta-based
company, a division now known as Cardinal Delivery,
Inc. Dedicated delivery services soon set the company
apart from other third-party logistics firms as Cardinal
streamlined their operations to a natural evolution
in jobsite and “last-mile”
delivery that builds on Cardinal’s expertise,
innovation and intent focus on customer satisfaction.
Another mainstay of Cardinal’s business centers
on non-asset based logistics solutions.
In January 2001, Cardinal executives recognized the
success of their core service in dedicated delivery
and logistics management and chose to focus on those
while eliminating its truckload line. Today, Cardinal
continues to experience explosive growth in both its
dedicated contract carriage and delivery divisions.
Following the acquisition of a web-native transportation
management system in 2002, Cardinal continues to develop
their successful suite of proprietary logistics technology
products that allows the company to assist customers
with non-asset based solutions or in conjunction with
dedicated delivery, dedicated contract carriage or
other value-added solutions.
With unprecedented 20 percent annual growth over the
past three years, Cardinal revenues now exceed more
than $200 million. Cardinal’s base of customers
also continues to expand and today includes diverse
top-tier Fortune 50 companies such as: The Home Depot,
Office Depot, 7-Eleven, Georgia-Pacific, GE and many
others in the retail, food, manufacturing and pulp
and paper industries.
Today, Cardinal’s employees total more than
1,300. Each member of the Cardinal team plays a vital
role in taking the organization to the next level.
As Cardinal stands poised for further exponential growth,
it is apparent the company is not only an exceptional
place to work but also an exceptional company with
which to do business.
Industry accolades abound
Cardinal also is the proud recipient of many prestigious
industry awards from industry publications and our
customers.
For the past three consecutive years, Cardinal has
been named by Inbound Logistics magazine as one of
the Top 100 3PL’s in the industry. In 2002 and
2003, the company also was named by Inbound as one
of the industry’s Top 100 Trucking Firms. TT100,
a leading annual industry report published by Transport
Topics, ranked Cardinal as the fourth best revenue
growth for private motor carriers in the industry and
listed Cardinal as #79 – up from #93 in 2002 – in
the list of Top 100 Motor Carriers. Closer to home,
the Charlotte Business Journal once again named Cardinal
as a “Fast 50” company, affirming the fact
that Cardinal is one of the fastest growing private
companies in the Charlotte, NC region.
With operations throughout North America and Puerto
Rico –
Cardinal is quite a success story… an embodiment
of how a company can emerge from small roots to become
one of the most trusted integrated logistics solutions
provider in the business.
Cardinal Logistics Management
Corporate Timeline at a glance:
A series of acquisitions that began in 1997 following
the purchase of Cardinal Freight’s parent company,
ABC, helped propel Cardinal’s explosive business
growth strategy as evidenced in this company timeline.
| 1980: |
Headquartered in Concord,
N.C., Cardinal Freight Carriers, Inc. (CFC) was
formed as a subsidiary of Carolina Freight Corporation.
The company began as a common carrier with a
fleet of only 14 tractors. |
| 1995: |
Carolina Freight Corporation (a.k.a.
Worldway, Inc.) merged into Arkansas Best Corporation
(ABC). Cardinal Freight Carriers, Inc. becomes
a wholly-owned subsidiary of ABC. |
| 1997: |
Cardinal Freight’s parent
company, ABC, acquired by the Chicago-based private
equity firm of GTCR, Golder, Rauner. Cardinal
Logistics Managment, Inc. (CLMI) a Delaware corporation
was formed as a holding company to purchase CFC
from ABC. |
| 1998: |
Cardinal acquired a small company
based in the Northeast with several existing
dedicated operations in place; |
| 1999: |
Cardinal extends service capabilities
to encompass local dedicated delivery activity
following the acquisition of a popular Atlanta-based
company,a division which is then renamed Cardinal
Delivery, Inc.; |
| 2001: |
Cardinal exits the common carrier
business in early 2001 with the sale of its van
division to Swift Transportation; Cardinal enhances
its logistics management services by offering
a web-native transportation management system
through its affiliate Clicklogistics. |
| 2002: |
Cardinal receives two-year extension
of its senior credit facility through Fleet Capital.
Cardinal’s other financial partners, Prudential
Capital and GTCR Golder Rauner, provided additional
resources, allowing the company additional support
for the continuation of it’s market-leading
growth track. |
| 2003: |
Cardinal announces amendment and
extension of its Senior Credit Facility with
Fleet Capital Corporation and Transamerica Business
Capital Corporation for new equipment acquisition
loan and an extension of the current banking
agreement through January 2006 to support Cardinal’s
continued growth strategy. |
| 2005: |
Cardinal Freight Carriers, Inc.,
a North Carolina corporation, filed with the
Secretary of State's office, and changed its
name to Cardinal Logisitics Management Corporation,
CLMC for short. |
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