Hickory Transportation Services LLC is moving into Flagler Center on its way to growing revenue.
The city issued a permit May 26 for Dav-Lin Interior Contractors Inc. to build-out 17,338 square feet of space at 12854 Kenan Drive at a cost of $272,185.
Connie Turner Interiors Inc. is the interior designer.
It will occupy Flagler Center Building 400, Suite 100. Flagler Center is between Interstate 95 and Philips Highway, south of Old St. Augustine Road.
Jacksonville-based Hickory Transportation Services, founded in 2008, operates at 11554 Davis Creek Court. That site is off Philips Highway, north of the Flagler site.
Ownership is led by William H. Morris, president and CEO of Jacksonville-based Hickory Foods, which distributes meats and meat products. It is known for its BUBBA Burgers.
The HTS website features its history.
It says the company began in 2008 with the acquisition of a company based in Waycross, Georgia, that made, sold and distributed frozen beef patties. That company started in 1958.
It formed a new entity June 1, 2008, to take over the distribution operation and created Hickory Transportation Services LLC.
From 2008-12, Hickory Transportation Services operated a small fleet of trucks and trailers, the site says.
It continued to serve primarily as an in-house carrier for a larger group of related companies, including the acquired company. Revenue grew from $1 million in 2008 to $3.5 million in 2012.
In early 2013, management decided to expand and grow the truck operation beyond the in-house operations, and moved the office to Jacksonville.
The company began “assembling a management team that was up to the task, and began acquiring the assets and technology necessary to scale the business”
The site says managers brought experience in asset-based trucking, freight brokerage and marine transportation, including private and public company experience, building startups from scratch.
Management grew annual revenue to more than $100 million and expanded the truck and trailer fleet to 25 units.
In August 2013, management formed HTS Logistics LLC to start and grow a brokerage operation.
The site says Hickory Transportation Services and HTS Logistics are separate legal entities.
“In substance however, we operate two separate companies as one cohesive transportation unit, operating from the same location, with the same management team,” the site says.
Consolidated revenue grew by 72%, to $25 million and the team grew “from zero at the beginning of 2013, to 30 members at the end of 2015.”
Since 2015, revenue has grown by 60% to $62 million and its agency segment grew to five agents “and we now have over 50 team members”
The site says that in January 2018, it secured a $5 million revolving line of credit with BB&T bank.
“We expect to expand it to $10 million in early 2020, to accommodate our expectations for the intermediate future, and help support our efforts to reach our first major milestone of realizing $100 million in annual revenue,” it says.