Cavalry Logistics expands through Universal integration, new locations

Cavalry Logistics is expanding rapidly this year by tripling its locations, hiring aggressively and integrating with Universal Logistics Holding Inc.’s forwarding division.

The Nashville-based third-party freight brokerage, a wholly owned subsidiary of Universal (NASDAQ: ULH), and the absorbed division will rebrand as Cavalry Logistics International (CLI).

“The opportunity to rebrand CLI under Cavalry came to us due to the results of our business development strategy. This strategy is supported by our proprietary technology which is developed in-house with the needs of our customers, carriers and team members in mind,” Bob King, president and founder of Cavalry said in a release. “Over the course of 14 years, we have achieved 30 percent organic growth [year over year] within the truckload industry, all through our own dollars! With a solidified strategy in place, a highly demanded service, and a great team behind them, CLI is expected to flourish as Cavalry has.”

While Cavalry did not disclose any financial details of the expansion, the company did confirm that Universal began to use Cavalry logos at early in 2019 and that the full integration should be complete later this spring.

As Cavalry’s corporate reach expands, the company is also spreading out geographically, opening a total of four new offices this year. Three branches – in Layton, Utah Chicago and Houston – have already opened, while the fourth new location, in Charleston, South Carolina, is scheduled to open in the next three months.

“We have been taking our time with growth, not because we weren’t able to, but because we want to make sure that it will be a strategic decision,” King said. “Our focus for new branches has been directed to port cities – yes, we have fewer locations than our competitors, but they will be larger in size. We will have over 400 people at the end of 2019, without sacrificing our core values, impacting our three percent turnover rate, or taking dollars from outside investment; which we are extremely proud of.”

A Cavalry spokesperson could not confirm how many jobs the new locations are expected to create, but told FreightWaves that hiring at the company was “pretty much endless” and that “if 100 people walk into the Nashville office, we would hire them all,” which is roughly the projected growth of the new offices.