Logistics Plus is in the business of solutions.
Solutions to transport parts and products around the globe.
Solutions to navigate complex export and import rules and regulations.
Solutions to warehouse critical inventory and address fulfillment needs.
Even solutions to source and supply hard-to- find personal protective equipment (PPE).
“We’re a solutions provider,” explains Founder and CEO Jim Berlin, “and we’ve been doing it for 25 years.”
Logistics Plus (LP) certainly has been one of northwest Penn- sylvania’s most exciting companies to watch since its founding in Erie in 1996. Led by Berlin’s enthusiastic entrepreneurial style and loyal team members, Logistics Plus has grown from a small transportation and logistics business to a $300 million privately held company with nearly 600 employees in 45 offices worldwide.
Over the past 25 years, the award-winning “Best Medium-Size Workplace” has become more diversified, more technology driven and more people driven — cementing its reputation as a leading provider of transportation, warehousing, fulfillment, logistics, business intelligence, technology and supply chain solutions around the globe.
Presently, Logistics Plus, a partner of the Manufacturer & Business Association’s logistics program, is on pace for another record year of consecutive growth as it enhances and expands its logistics, transportation and warehousing services, and enters new markets with the creation of its new LP Air Charter Group cargo service and new LP Medical Division (LP Med).
“We’ve been global for more than 20 years, and we have a good reputation and good connections around the world,” explains Berlin, “so we’ve continued to find a way to deliver when others could not. That’s really how we’ve run the business by making things happen.”
Adapting for Sustained Growth and Success
Berlin, who began his career in the trucking industry and started LP with what initially was a one-year contract to handle in-bound logistics for GE Transportation, has always been a risk taker and “big idea” guy. He is visibly passionate about his business and his team members, often encouraging them to jump first and problem solve, while supporting ideas to adapt and innovate with changing market demands and economic shifts.
Most recently, Logistics Plus created new lines of business from the growing demand for personal protection equipment (PPE) due to COVID-19. The company quickly leveraged its global connections to source and deliver PPE around the world, including local employers throughout northwest Pennsylvania.
According to Senior Vice President of International at LP Gretchen Seth, the
company’s first experience with PPE began in January 2020 when LP’s Shanghai office shipped a box full of latex gloves and N95 and three-ply masks to its Erie headquarters. That shipment turned out to be a watershed
moment for the company as demand for PPE exploded over the next month and a half.
As lockdowns impacted the world, the importance of “logistics” and “supply chain” management have become more apparent than ever before. For its part, LP was able to leverage its supply chain expertise and lean on its global network to source and deliver nearly impossible to find PPE. The company worked closely with Delta Air Lines to create a new, charter air cargo service, utilizing several passenger planes and turning them into cargo planes, to get the items delivered.
Read more in the January 2021 edition of the Business Magazine!
