BlueGrace Logistics celebrated its 10-year anniversary on February 22. Founded in 2009 with only eight employees, the company currently has 600 employees and is one of the largest third-party logistics (3PL) providers in the United States.
BlueGrace, based in Tampa, Florida, helps businesses manage their freight supply chains with a network of carrier to customer relationships.
Bobby Harris, founder and chief executive officer of BlueGrace, spoke on the challenges his company has faced since its start a decade ago.
“A little knowledge is dangerous,” said Harris. “You can’t base supply chain knowledge you’ve learned in the past on supply chain realities today.”
He went on to say that BlueGrace is held to higher standards every year with delivery windows decreasing and customer expectations increasing. The ability for BlueGrace to manage its supply chain operations requires immediate information.
The company’s new customer-focused transportation management system, BlueShip 4.0, was launched on January 10.
“We did more than redesign our BlueShip product, we re-engineered it,” said Guy Savoie, senior director of software development at BlueGrace. “With constant feedback from our user-base, including customers, partners and employees, our IT team built a truly new platform that increases usability, speeds integration, and utilizes a new interface that better represents the tools BlueGrace offers to help simplify supply chains.”
“Our goals are to make our technology easier to use,” said Harris. “More than anything customers now want predicted intelligence and good visibility.”
Harris said that BlueGrace preferred to grow its truckload and less than truckload (LTL) modes in 2019 rather than expanding into intermodal ventures. The company will retain its focus in flatbed, refrigerated trucks, consumer goods, supply and distribution. Harris also said that BlueGrace was seeking to acquire a supply chain company in 2019, but would not specify which organization.
“2018 was our largest year,” said Harris. “We’ve started 2019 by increasing our investments with inorganic growth. We’re looking at one strategic M&A deal. We want them to add to us or we can add to them.”
Harris was excited for the upcoming 2019 Link supply chain conference in Orlando. He said the conference brings together a group of companies with a strong aptitude for improving the supply chain. BlueGrace plans to increase its investment in supply chain conference attendance by 400 percent.
According to the Tampa Bay Times, BlueGrace is expected to generate over $500 million in revenue in 2019. The company plans to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2022 and hire up to 3,000 employees.
“The people are what makes BlueGrace,” said Harris.