Fetch Logistics Inc.

In the first year of their eligibility, Fetch Logistics, Inc. made Inc. magazine's list of the country's 500 fastest-growing privately owned companies.

Inc.'s list is not comprehensive. Companies apply to be considered, then undergo checks. Businesses must be independently owned and in operation for at least five years. This year's group needed a minimum of $200,000 in sales in 1997, and their 2001 sales had to be higher than the previous year.

Inc. says it's difficult to make the list twice in a row, since the list is based on percentage of increase in sales over five years. Even so, Fetch Logistics in Amherst, ranked the highest among local companies and was ranked at #103 in the Nation.

Many companies play up the designation on their Web sites or stationery. But at best, they see it as a way to reinforce their performance and results with customers.

2001 posed an extra challenge to companies: keeping up a torrid pace in sales growth amid a weak economy.

Fetch Logistics is in the business of arranging freight shipments on behalf of customers.

Fetch Logistics started in a basement in 1997 - the youngest that a company could be to qualify for this year's Inc. list. Now it has 31 employees, operates from an Amherst business park and is planning to move into larger quarters, said Robert Closs II, the president and one of three owners.

The company has grown to handle many shipments that don't even involve Buffalo. It has built a presence in five other cities, by hiring outside sales representatives who work from home, instead of opening branches. "You don't have the overhead," Closs said. "A lot of what we do is over the telephone."

Closs sees great opportunity in the fragmented freight-shipping business. Industry leader C.H. Robinson Worldwide is a multibillion-dollar company but still controls only 3 percent of the market. "Everything has to be trucked. There's unlimited potential," Closs said.