A global company that offers a broad range of state-of-the-art logistics services to Fortune 500 clients in the US, Canada, and Mexico, Buske has come a long way since its inception. This is their journey – a journey of a century-old business that transformed into one of the leading logistics companies in the present times. 

How did they do that? 

Since entering the business, Buske has been committed to offering its partners the personal attention that resulted in quick responses, superior value, cutting-edge technology, and the most reliable performances in their industry.

The transformation is significant, the journey unique, driven by influence and investment by one of the most respected organizations in the world. 

Buske Logistics, Nicholas L Heinz, CEO, said, “This transformation has been driven by influence and investment by one of the most respected companies in the world (SC Johnson and Son, Inc.) and then propelled forward by the entrepreneurial spirit and drive of a group of owner-operators. The company has built a world-class operating platform unique in our industry when matched with recent strategic leadership hires and the financial partnership with Fourshore Capital.”

The logistics industry is majorly impacted by continuous supply chain issues across the major inputs ranging from scanning equipment to packaging lines, from industrial dock door packages to forklift MHE. 

The industry is seeing lead times as far as out of 50+ weeks for forklifts. 

Additionally, the industrial real estate market continues to be compact, especially in major MSAs, which have vacancy rates of zero per cent.

Buske Logistics have witnessed these shortages and an opportunity. The company has successfully leveraged strategic partnerships, which it has built over its journey. 

Quick decision-making and faster responses blended with the deep loyalty that the team dedicates to their strategic partners are some of the key reasons for Buske Logistics’ rapid expansion. The dedication to their strategic partners gets the job done with quick precision forging a more trustworthy bond. 

“Additionally, cross-pollinating sale volume between our customer and vendor networks has enabled us to create substantial value for our partners on both sides of the ledger. For example, introducing our strategic dock, MHE, and IT vendors to our larger customers has resulted in a win-win for our vendors from a revenue perspective as well as for our customers, as our handy approach results in procuring critical equipment when most suppliers are out of stock,” revealed Nicholas L Heinz. 

Talking about the challenges faced by the logistics industry, Nicholas L Heinz said that lack of transparency, slow to act, and inflexibility in the services offered by other 3PLs are some of the challenges. Buske Logistics has a clear mission, vision, culture, operating philosophy, and competitive advantage that puts it ahead of its competitors. 

Elaborating on the tagline – Simple, Transparent, Logistics – Nicholas L Heinz said, “There are four points to this statement including – 

1. Full transparency in pricing, including staffing models, compensation rates, productivity assumptions and line-item cost detail. 

2. Follow up with Quarterly Business Reviews providing overviews of core KPIs, service failure incidents, continuous improvement initiatives and overall satisfaction across all constituents via transparent NPS survey results. 

3. Seamless integration with customer TMS and ERP systems via EDI or rest API integrations. 

4. Customizable reporting and dashboarding packages on customer portals.”

If we talk about success rate and the impact of Buske Logistics on different companies, California Production and Distribution Center is one that benefited from the strategic planning and outcome provided by Buske. 

They approached Buske Logistics in January. The client faced problems like failed 3PLs because of a lack of leadership and inability to operate based on facts. When Buske Logistics entered – the first remedial steps it took was an onsite visit to understand the employee and manufacturing challenges. The result was that the company’s facility got a facelift with a clearly defined management structure in place, sustainability conversions to all the EVs, and a 98% employee retention rate. Now, it is the company’s flagship facility.

What separated or rather what separates the top providers like Buske Logistics from the rest of the herd was their ability to deliver at any given point in time. 

“Our product is comprised of People, Processes and Tools. We invest heavily in our People to attract and retain talented leaders while developing our front-line staff for expansion and future leadership opportunities. By hiring and developing talented People, we can build proprietary processes which create an agile platform allowing us to service the most complex accounts in a clear and organized manner,” said Nicholas L Heinz. 

Over the last five years, the company has invested in a comprehensive suite of enterprise-level software and equipment. This armed the company with a robust, scalable operating model, which could accommodate virtually any fulfilment requirement while carrying the critical redundancies that ensure the reliability and security required by even the most demanding fortune 500 companies. 

The future looks bright for Buske Logistics, with footprint expansion anticipated in the next six months from Georgia to Ohio. With two operations in Georgia over the area of 1MM sq. ft.; to one operation each in Missouri, Florida, and Ohio over the areas of 250K sq. ft, 400K sq. ft., and 150K sq. ft., respectively. 

The company is also looking ahead in terms of investment and development with sustainability initiatives, including investment in -- LED lighting across the network, EV forklifts across the network, and EV spotter trucks across the network. 

And in Information Technology – Continued EDI/API integration with core customers; and Continued improvement of operating platform including dev projects for – WMS system; CRM system; MS Teams – core operating platform leveraging Power BI & Power Automate; and Conversion to 100% paperless.