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TRUCKING FLS Transportation’s President, Mike Flinker, says that despite 30 years of success he is eyeing new opportunities for growth and acquisitions
Written by: James Henderson Produced by: Sharicka Braley
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e were three guys with a dream,” says Mike Flinker as he recalls the very earliest days of FLS Transportation. Fast forward 30 years and the Canadian-born President now leads a $400 million a year business that was taken over last year by a private equity firm, a development that will allow the business to now look for acquisitions of its own. But it wasn’t anything like all plain sailing; with just $1,100 between them, the three business partners only had enough money to incorporate the business, confident that their past experience of the transportation would be enough for the banks of Canada to open their doors, battling for the chance to offer the burgeoning business with financing. Not so. “With no capital to speak of, the banks turned us straight down,” says Flinker. Instead, the trio were forced to approach former clients asking if they’d support the newly formed FLS Transportation, with one caveat – could they pay us right away? “Initially it was a surprise how many of our former clients said they’d put business our way, but to ask for money up front really did startle a number of them, which is understandable because we’d always received payment from them in a timely manner. It was really tough to explain to them that it wasn’t a case of not trusting them, but rather the banks not wanting to finance the new company.” Perhaps surprisingly, a number of trusting clients agreed to turn around payment straight away,
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“We’re currently working on an acquisition and while we can’t say who it’s for, we’re really excited about it” – Mike Flinker, President
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Craig Swain Vice President, Strategic Operations
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Domenic Di Girolamo Chief Executive Officer
Jason Hollingsworth
Chief Information Officer
Pierre Gagne
Sandra Fraser
Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Vice-President, HR & Corporate
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meaning they could pay the trucking we had designs on really growing the companies 10 days later, thus business, but to do that we had to overcoming the banks holding their be a player in the US market – you’re checks for seven days. In Flinker’s wasting your time if you’re not and words it was “off to the races we you want to grow,” he comments. went”. He acknowledges that it was an By his reckoning it would take a atypical way to establish a company, couple of years, but that reckoning saying: “If you presented proved to be it as a business plan ambitious for a to a bunch of Harvard couple of reasons. Business students, they’d “It was a really tough probably say we’re going transition,” Flinker bust in a few days, but we admits. “We thought really defied the odds.” the clients that we had What followed was – which were mainly nigh-on two decades of American companies solid domestic growth in who were giving us Canada, as the business cross border business won itself a name for – would ultimately logistics excellence, – Mike Flinker, President give us business in the taking in truckloads, US, but that wasn’t intermodal, freight management, and forthcoming and we had to do what temperature controlled equipment. everybody else did and wait in line.” But keen to push the business The global downturn of 2008, forward, Flinker pushed for expansion 2009 and 2010 was also hugely into the potentially lucrative US market challenging for the sector, with a in 2005, something he marks as “a number of businesses falling by real milestone” for the company. the wayside in the process. “The Canadian dollar had begun to “In reality it took eight or nine years escalate in value and we knew that and really get traction in the US. That
“I think when it comes to companies like Walmart or Home Depot, it’s about gaining their confidence”
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was the biggest surprise to me, I never thought it would take that long. That’s not to say we weren’t growing in the time because we were picking up clients but it was the huge Fortune 500 clients that we had worked with in Canada that we reluctant to give us that domestic US business up until 2014. I think we showed a lot of tenacity in our pursuit that made them realize that we weren’t going to quit, and perhaps after so many companies fell away in the aftermath of 2008, 2009 and 2010, that they saw an opportunity for us,” he says. “I think when it comes to companies like Walmart or Home Depot, it’s about gaining their confidence and
FLS has worked diligently to fundraise for various charitable organizations. Whether a bake sale, food drive, or collecting and donating toys around the holidays, there is always a new charitable venture underway. The generosity of the FLS team, and affiliated donors, in giving both their tie and talents has yielded very positive results for members of our community with needs
showing them that what we can do, and then doing exactly that – we always felt like that but it’s irrelevant if the client doesn’t share that view. If you view yourself as a genius but the rest of the world thinks you’re an idiot, what good is that?” The breakthrough saw the company’s fortunes soar, and by the time FLS was sold in 2016, in the 11 years since it entered the US market it had achieved compound sales growth of 30% per year, and compound profit growth of 28% per year, leading to admiring eyes that ultimately saw the company acquired by Arby Partners in March last year. “What’s been added is real
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FLS takes pride in its ability to offer timely and costeffective transportaion and logistics solutions
More than 30 years of expreience in providing leading edge logistics solutions across North America.
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Legal Logistics: Since 2008, Lewis Rice has provided insightful legal counsel to FLS Transportation Services, helping it become one of the fastest-growing third-party logistics service providers in North America. Where can Lewis Rice take you?
Robert Tormohlen | 816.472.2507 lewisrice.com The choice of a law firm is an important decision and should not be based solely on advertisements.
Focused on providing exceptional service to clients of various sizes across a number of diverse industries, FLS is passionate about developing customer centric solutions, hand-crafted from a wide portfolio sf services.
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As leader in the third-party logistics space, FLS invests early and often in new technologies and infrastructure that position its clients to be supply chain leaest in the markets it serves
structure,” says Flinker. “If we had weaknesses it was on the administrative side. We bolstered all of our accounting, we have a first rate CFO and a top quality controller, as well as a great assistant controller. Concurrently, they’ve given us the freedom to keep doing what we’re good at, and given us capital to make acquisitions. We’re currently working on an acquisition and while we can’t say who it’s for, we’re really excited about it. We hope to see that close by the end of the summer and we’ll look to make more acquisitions after that.” The company is also making inroads into the Mexican market, and
has Mexican nationals to smooth the process, while it is working closely with its clients to ensure its technology offering is best-in-class. Flinker is a 37 year veteran of the business, but says he is “massively excited for the future.” If the last three decades at FLS Transportation is anything to go by, he has every right to be so.
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Montreal, QC – Head Office 333 Decarie Blvd., suite 250 Montreal, QC H4N 3M9 Tel. (800-739-0939 www.flstransport.com