When Chattanoogans Jim Kennedy and Sam Smartt launched in 1950 the business known today as Kenco Logistics, they pretty much redefined the term “division of labor.”
“They had one suit between them, and a forklift,” says Denis Reilly, Kenco’s president and CEO. “In the mornings, one of them would put on the suit and go make sales calls while the other drove the forklift. Then they’d switch in the afternoon.”
That effort, and $25,000 in seed money from Kennedy’s family, has given rise 75 years later to a company that has 7,500 employees throughout North America and manages 43 million square feet of warehouse space. Reilly says Kenco grew by 20 percent for each of the past five years, counts Reckitt, Blue Buffalo, Kerry Foods and Paula’s Choice among its customers and racked up $1.6 billion in gross revenues in 2024.
“The company grew the right way — slowly, over a long period,” Reilly says in a telephone interview. “And right from the beginning, we began developing the culture we have today — a culture based on taking care of the people on the (warehouse) floor.