Today we’d like to introduce you to Brad Factor.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I started coming into work with my dad on day’s off of school and during summer break. I always knew from a very young age I wanted to come and work in the family business. I started in our accounting posting checks and working in our communications department since I loved numbers and technology. Once I got my driver’s license, I started driving out to our distribution center after school and in the summers unloading trucks and wrapping pallets. When I was further into college, I started working in our dispatch and customer service department. I really got to know the Chicagoland area and how to deal with customers and people. When you’re in the customer service department of emergency delivery business, you learn how to deal with stress real quick. After graduating from Lynn University in Boca Raton, FL, I came in with a focus on technology, marketing, sales, and operations. There really hasn’t been a job in the company that I have not done. Today, I am the vice president of the company, and 3rd generation owner. Since then, my younger sister, Amanda, decided to come into the family business, and she runs our sales department now.
Has it been a smooth road?
A lot of people ask me how in the world I work with my family. I work right next to my dad, with a sliding door between us that is always open. In the 40 years of my father working with his dad, he has never had a squabble. My sister sits right across the hall, and you would think we would drive each other crazy. However, we have never had a fight, blowout, argument, and we wonder what we would do without each other. We are all great partners. There hasn’t been a struggle that we couldn’t overcome. Everyday things happen beyond our control, trucks break down, a wall gets knicked at a delivery, a rush delivery is behind schedule. We have the best people in the industry working for us. You’re supposed to surround yourself with people smarter than you. You walk around our office, and the majority of our people have been with us since I was a little kid. Most of our people have been here 5, 10, 20, 30+ years. We are all very close, and we have built a family like culture. Our #1 competitive advantage is our people, and our rock star team has made the road much much smoother.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Chicago Messenger Service story. Tell us more about the business.
Chicago Messenger Service (CMS) has been the leader in the delivery business since 1964. CMS was founded by my grandfather, Hy Factor. We’re very unique as we specialize in many different types of delivery services. We provide emergency delivery, routed, and temperature controlled delivery, as well as small parcel, retail, and last mile distribution. There are many delivery services in the Chicago area, but very few provide all the services that we offer, and I don’t like to brag, but we are GREAT at all of them. We truly are full service. I am most proud of the people working with us. We have all been very creative. We have gotten into new services from customers that come to us with ideas that we have turned into core competencies. We’ve become the biggest courier service in Chicago. There aren’t too many companies out there that can get you a refrigerated truck within an hour. Also, we lead the last mile delivery space. Many fortune 500 companies rely on us to deliver the product they put on their store shelves, and be their face to their customer. They trust us to deliver large items in their customers’ homes with two man teams. Last mile delivery is the big buzzword now, we’ve been doing this for 15 years starting with Ikea, when a customer asked if we could do their deliveries, because they were looking to outsource. It was unique then, nobody else was doing it. We have become a third party logistic company to the wine and spirits industry. Many of these small ma’ & pa’ distributors had a couple vans, and a small warehouse. We created a service, where we warehouse wine and spirits with many distributors, managing their whole warehouse process, of inbound/outbound, inventory management, and picking. All they have to do is go out and sell their product, and they leave all their headaches with us. We wouldn’t be #1 delivery/logistics company in Chicago without our people. If you have a big idea, and need help with the supply chain, we are the place to come!
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
We keep hearing about companies exploring drone delivery, companies investing big R&D dollars towards driver-less cars, Domino’s delivering pizzas via robot, and Uber buying Otto, who delivered a truckload of Budweiser via driver-less truck. Many players coming into the same day delivery space with technology and innovation. Every year the logistics landscape changes. The last mile industry is booming. More and more consumers are shopping online, and e-commerce is growing at a rapid pace, exploding every year. Most companies do not see their direct competitors as their competition, and they are fighting for market share against Amazon. Companies are changing processes for faster fulfillment to compete with the speed of Amazon.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1600 S Ashland Ave
- Website: www.chicagomessenger.com
- Phone: 312-666-6800
- Email: contact@chicagomessenger,com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chicagomessenger/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chicagomessenger/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChiMessenger
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cm7HLGJa6M8&t=6s
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