Saddle Creek Corporation

The Saddle Creek Corporation is a United States distribution services company that provides warehousing, transportation, packaging, and integrated logistics services. The family-owned business focuses primarily on the Southeast United States, although there are partners as far away as California.

History

In 1966, the founder and CEO, David Lyons, started the company to focus on distribution services for grocery products in the Florida area. In the 1970s the Saddle Creek Corporation developed into a warehousing and transportation business in Central Florida. The company's served several clients that needed either year-round or seasonal services. During the 1980s the company expanded into Macon, Georgia, where the company developed considerably, focusing more on high-value products. Eastside Distributors was also acquired to strengthen their transportation capabilities, and to provide temperature-sensitive transportation.

A 100-truckload-per-day cross-dock operation was launched in the 1990s. A second was added in Atlanta, when a major grocery DC was constructed. The company continued to grow, and a grocery and alcoholic beverage facility was opened in Dallas, Texas, later that decade. Stand-alone contract operations were also introduced.ref|history Throughout the company's history, it has avoided mergers with larger conglomerates.

Present activities

Since 2000, new facilities have been opened in Oklahoma City, Orlando, Fort Worth, Waco, Chattanooga, Lakeland, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina. They purchased a company now known as Saddle Creek Copak Services to facilitate product assembly, display assembly, and shrink-wrapping services. Saddle Creek's clients include Sam's Club, International Paper, Quaker Oats, Gallo, Del Monte Foods, Verbatim, Home Depot, Dial and many others.ref|clients David Lyons is the CEO and chairman of the board, while Cliff Otto serves as the company president after the retirement of Bruce Abels. They currently employ about 1,600 associates.

References

* Saddle Creek Corporation [http://www.saddlecrk.com/content/interior.asp?section=company&body=history "Our Company"] URL Accessed on January 25, 2006
* http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2003/07/28/story2.html

External links

* [http://www.saddlecrk.com/ Official Site]
* [http://www.inboundlogistics.com/planner/089.shtml Saddle Creek profile] from Inbound Logistics