CaseStack expanding locally and in the U.S., adding 95 jobs

The ever changing world of retail is creating more demand for complex logistics services. That’s a good thing for Fayetteville-based CaseStack, which is expanding operations locally and nationwide to meet the growing demand.

“More companies (not just smaller ones) need a tech-enabled solution. Retailer requirements are always increasing, and it increasingly makes sense for us to hire and train experts instead of every company trying to do it separately,” CaseStack CEO Dan Sanker told The City Wire on Monday (Feb 9).

He said the supply chain management industry is becoming very complex as retailers are operating in multiple channels from brick and mortar big box to e-tail only, and a blended mix of the two. 

“Companies can’t just wing it anymore if they want to grow sustainably. They also need the benefits of consolidation services to reduce costs to retailers. Consumers don’t want to pay for supply chain inefficiencies,” Sanker said.

Monday (Feb 9) and Tuesday (Feb. 10) CaseStack is holding a career fair at its offices in Fayetteville to fill about 95 positions this year across its network of offices.

“We are on a mission to give clients and partners a supply chain competitive advantage.  We only have about 220 people now, so each person is critically important. We have about 70 people in Fayetteville, about 100 around Santa Monica (Calif.), and some folks in Dallas, Chicago, and Scranton (Pa.). We just added five logistics operations professionals in our Atlanta location. We’ll be opening a Cincinnati office this year also,” Sanker said.

The company recently added five new freight brokers in Fayetteville, nearly doubling its local sales force in this separate division amid growing demand for less-than-truckload freight. The company is expanding its local office space at 3739 North Steele Blvd. in Fayetteville by nearly 50% to accommodate for the new employees who will join CaseStack this year.

Sanker said the company is following a strong growth trajectory of about 20% annually  for the past five years. He said the growth requires the company to add new talent and then work to retain it throughout the years.

“The career fair is one of the ways we’ll kick start this year’s development of talent.  We’re ready to speak with talented people who share CaseStack values – collaboration, hard work, intellectual curiosity, excellence and determination,” Sanker said.

He said many companies are recruiting for all positions from operations, customer service, information technology to accounting, but sales and customer management professionals are in the biggest demand.

“I am hopeful that many of our new talent recruits will be in Fayetteville, but we’ll see where the talent bubbles up. As you know, I’ve always believed in Northwest Arkansas, its culture and its future as a cluster for retail technology excellence. I’ve seen that becoming even more of a reality in the past years since I have been here,” Sanker said.

BROAD THINK TANK
In an effort to retain and grow local talent, CaseStack recently initiated a a corporate-wide, multi-functional “Knowledge Sharing Group” (KSG) to better include all CaseStack employees in building the company’s future. 

“The KSG idea bubbled up at a sales meeting from one of our directors of business development, Josh Carmack. It’s really coming together,” Sanker said.

KSG starts with volunteers from functional areas across the company who work together creating a team that discusses corporate objectives, goals, strategies and measures within the vision and core values framework. Sanker said the groups are a positive, constructive think tank of ideas that can help propel the company forward. 

“Equally as important is that each member leaves with a more broad and deep understanding of other functions. Our organization has developed a lot of knowledge. We want to prevent it from living in silos, so we can build more well-rounded teammates leading to better careers, better processes, and a better-performing company,” Sanker said.

GROWTH AND ACCOLADES 
Sanker admits he has no idea how many people will attend the career fair but he’s hoping to see local talent turn out because its needed.

“We are looking forward to a growth year. If we can do our small part to make supply chains better then we also grow and we help (consumer packaged goods) companies and retailers deliver on their promises to give shoppers better products at better value,” Sanker said.

He told The City Wire that CaseStack is backed by private equity, mostly out of California but he hasn’t needed to raise money in many years. Sanker said this year’s expansion is funded by the near 20% annual growth in business revenue since 2010.
 
CaseStack was recognized in 2013 and 2014 as one of the Best Places to work in Arkansas by Deloitte and Inc. Magazine. The company said it offers a competitive compensation package for professionals seeking work in the supply chain and logistics industry.