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Date:	February 10, 2003
Title:	Playing 'Fetch' For this crew, delivering the goods is no dog house
Publication:	® Buffalo Business First
Author:	Adrian Burns
Who's Who: Robert Closs II, president; Bob Atwater and William Wilcox, vice presidents What's Going On: Fetch Logistics provides freight transportation and logistics services to companies that have products to move but don't have the desire or means to do it themselves. Two of their local clients are General Mills and American Brass. Fetch Logistics mostly handles building materials, metals, food and plastics. Fetch moves freight anywhere in the continental United States and Canada. "All the Fetch customer has to do is say what goes where and when, and Fetch does the rest, from the paperwork to the actual movement," Atwater says. Fetch does not own any transportation equipment; it transports goods through its network of 15,000 air, rail and trucking companies. Fetch manages the volumes and destinations of the loads so that prices stay low. Typically, they arrange 70 to 150 shipments per day. History: Friends Closs and Wilcox started Fetch Logistics in 1997 in a corner of Closs' parents' basement. They had worked together in shipping and developed some of their own ideas about how to run a logistics operation. Rather than trying to change the policies of the places they worked, Closs and Wilcox started their own business. The friends wanted to make changes in the commission structure, the way carriers were handled, and they wanted their business to run its operations from one central office. "We knew that we could make money on it, and that we were young and aggressive," Wilcox says. For two years it was just Closs and Wilcox. Then there were five employees, then seven, and finally Fetch Logistics was out of the basement and into new office space. That space was supposed to last five years; Fetch outgrew it in a year. They had around 25 employees and they had to move again, so they relocated to another office in November 2002. Since then, the staff has grown to 35. Greatest Challenge: The greatest challenge at Fetch is finding quality people. "It's not easy to get hired here," Atwater says. Applicants first must take a personality index test, then undergo a phone interview followed by a sit-down interview. The Fetch Logistics staff then meets to discuss the prospective employee. If an applicant is promising then he or she is brought into the office to sit in with a current employee for up to an hour in order to see first-hand what the position is like. If the applicant is still interested in the position, an offer is made by Fetch Logistics. Atwater says it's difficult to work at Fetch Logistics because the shipping accounts are so complex, and because of the need for constant multitasking while confronting any problems that might arise. Fetch employees are given a lot of responsibility. "We trust each person to make decisions about a lot of money," Atwater says. For example, Fetch employees aren't constantly supervised, but are left to make their own decisions concerning the details of a shipping account. Revenues: Approximately $12 million in sales for 2002. Best decision: "Moving out of the basement," jokes Closs. According to Wilcox, the best decision that has been made for the company is its investment in technology for Fetch's computers, which are relied upon to organize accounts. The computer systems and software at Fetch "have made us tremendously efficient at what we do," Wilcox says. Proudest achievement: Simply, growth. Fetch's sales more than doubled last year, going from $5.3 million to almost $12 million - and they more than doubled their staff last year too. Fetch was ranked 103 of 500 in Inc. Magazine's 2002 list of the 500 fastest growing privately owned corporations in America. Fetch Logistics is the highest-ranked corporation from Western New York on the list. Five-year plan: Closs, Atwater and Wilcox want to double sales every year. Says Atwater, "doubling sales every year as a small business is something you should shoot for because it's attainable." Atwater says it gets harder to double sales as a business grows, but "there's no reason we can't attain it through hard work," he said. Closs, Atwater and Wilcox hope to expand their staff and get outside sales staff members in every major city. Wilcox hopes to have a staff of 150-200 in five years. "Eventually," Closs says, "we'll be the industry leader, that's the goal." ® 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.