Genpro focused on enabled technology
- by Keith Loria | August 17, 2020
For more than three decades, Genpro has been a leading company in the freight marketplace, deploying smart solutions that keep customers moving forward. From expedited services for perishable products, to drop-trailer projects during surges, to optimizing an inbound network to control costs, the Genpro team prides itself on letting innovation shine.
“Most of what we do is produce and we have a high emphasis on that, but we also are diversified with other commodities,” said Rob Goldstein, president and owner of the company. “There’s a lot of temperature-controlled and food items. We service retailers, food service and wholesalers nationwide. We ship from all major growing regions to all destinations.”
Beyond giving customers 24/7 visibility into each shipment, the Rutherford, NJ-based company provides a variety of solutions including spot, dedicated capacity, managed transportation, technology and integrations.
“We are good at what we do and have a tremendous qualified staff to achieve successful outcomes and executing freight through our knowledge and enabled technology,” Goldstein said. “We’ve been doing this more than 30 years and we’ve navigated through many stressful events that have impacted business; COVID-19 is just one more we’ve had to adjust to in supporting customers and understanding the obstacles they have in getting product to their customers.”
Back in March, the company took a wait-and-see approach to figure out how to navigate through the pandemic and adjusted well. Part of that was putting a tight communication plan in place and adjusting to the changing markets.
“We have about 100 employees, so we got them all off site and we have a big dependency on technology and systems, which became highly available to perform the functions needed to service our customers and carriers,” Goldstein said. “I think we did pretty well with a lot of collaboration and the systems enabling us to do that.”
Since foodservice was hit hard and retail orders grew, it resulted in a bit of a shift for the company in regard to produce.
“There were a lot of unknowns because of some volatile markets, but we were able to adapt to it,” Goldstein said. “There were a lot of unbalances going on in the marketplace specific to freight.”
He added that what started happening because of COVID-19 was a new rhythm had to be established because of events both domestically and globally that impacted trade.
“We needed a new way to predict a little bit on the future on what was happening from a transportation slant,” Goldstein said. “We’re a part of our customers’ supply chain, so we try to adjust to that and offer high levels of service in order to fly alongside of them.”
Looking at the marketplace today, Goldstein sees several challenges presented, and not just because of the pandemic. Challenges include working around capacity that’s available, understanding patterns in the supply chain based on ever-changing consumer behavior and increased competition.
The team at Genpro pays close attention to the numbers and works with customers on what this means and how to get through it all.
“We know how to navigate through this and support our customers,” Goldstein said.
The company continues to embark on an aggressive growth strategy, one that is more solution oriented thanks to new technology offerings. Goldstein said growth has always been important since first starting in the business.
“There are really some great people and organizations in produce that have been around a long time and our success has been a commitment to integrity and the dedication it takes to be able to be successful,” he said.
Photo: Rob and Alanna Goldstein.
