JBS 2016 Year in Review

Celebrating our 30th year in business, our newly formed social committee (Elvia, Steve, Emilie, Kathy, Joe, Lucy and Penny) was responsible for organizing 2 main functions: The first was to celebrate our actual anniversary date of June 1st with a company-wide luncheon and picture taking (Christmas card). We actually closed down our operations for a couple hours that day (1st time ever) to make sure everyone was able to celebrate together.

2016 was a challenging year for our business as well. We needed to replace a couple good warehouse customers who had moved their operations out of the Chicago area. Combined with a sluggish economy, our usual annual growth was going to be difficult. We needed to refocus our business strategy and look for an alternative to expand. That is when the opportunity of combining operations with Koch Logistics presented itself. For the later part of the year, I was focused on due diligence merger planning while Sam recovered from his surgery. It was a bittersweet moment when we finalized the strategic partnership in November.

After 30 years JBS now has a new partner; Koch Logistics a division of Stan Koch Trucking of Minneapolis. The new JBS will allow both companies to share best practices and resources that enhance mutual success.

I anticipate an exciting transitional year in 2017. We have plans to:

With our continued enthusiasm and teamwork, I look forward to the next 30 years!

To all of our employees, vendors, and customers, we say Thank You for your hard work, dedication, and loyalty and hope that the New Year brings you many blessings and good cheer!

Alec A Gizzi

JBS Logistics & Warehousing, Inc