Dear friends and valued partners,
As we move into 2022, (how is it February already?) I want to touch upon a number of key transitions within our team. As many of you are aware, MD Logistics founder and executive advisor Mark Sell passed away in late December after a brief and courageous battle with cancer. While we mourn the loss of Mark, as an organization, we are comforted by the opportunity to continue his legacy at MD Logistics and within the supply chain industry. When Mark moved into an advisory role back in October, I accepted the position of President and CEO of MD Logistics. Even though this is a new role for me, I have spent the entirety of my career with MD Logistics and have witnessed how Mark grew this company from a small seven-person team to the industry leading 3PL provider that MD Logistics is today. I am excited to be entrusted to lead the MD Logistics team into this next phase of growth, fully humbled by the size of shoes I have been asked to fill.
We have welcomed two new members to the executive team and I want to convey my heartfelt congratulations to Chad Hodges and Ryan Robertson who have been promoted to Vice President positions in our life sciences and pharmaceuticals and retail and consumer goods divisions, respectively. As we continue to grow, we see opportunities open and good news stories shared about internal candidates receiving promotions, further advancing their own careers. I congratulate each and every one of them and look forward to continuing to watch upward growth within the MD Logistics team as our company grows.
As we work through the year, I anticipate many of the same trends that we have witnessed over the course of the last year, to still be ever present. Perhaps the major challenge that will remain is the global port congestion. While the industry is seeing a gradual improvement at the ports, it will still take quite some time to return to pre-pandemic levels. As trends with nearshoring continue, the demand for capacity in the life sciences and pharmaceutical industry will further increase. Pharmaceutical grade warehousing space will be in high demand in 2022. Industry wide we have realized a shortage of readily available labor over the course of the last year. We anticipate that that shortage will continue well into 2022, with the real possibility that it might not ever return to pre-pandemic levels. Trends influence the success we have as a 3pl provider. Looking at these trends help us to continue to offer the best possible experience to our customers.
In September of 2020, we announced the acquisition of MD Logistics and MD Express as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Express USA, recently rebranded as the NX Group. With this acquisition, we promised both operational growth and job expansion within the Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical and Retail and Consumer Goods industries. We are proud to say that a year and half later, we are doing just that. In 2022, we look forward to expanding the MD Logistics brand to North Carolina as we open our sixth MD Logistics facility in the Raleigh-Durham area.
Reflecting on the last year, I can’t help but be thankful for our people who make up our MD Logistics team. Their tireless dedication to their jobs is what has kept the supply chain moving forward this past year, despite numerous challenges. As we move forward in 2022, I thank them for their continued commitment to ensuring our business is successful. I also thank our numerous vendors whose support through the years has helped us to be both efficient and agile to any challenge that may arise. Finally, I want to thank our loyal customers, many of whom have been with us for many, many years. Your trust in our team to keep your supply chains moving forward is what keeps our team going. Thank you for your support as we move forward into the next chapter for MD Logistics.
As we look forward to the year ahead, we welcome the opportunities for growth, both as a company and as individuals grow their careers within new positions on our team. As we turn the corner, we have great things to look forward to in 2022 and are proud to continue to maintain a quality of service our customers have come to expect from us, despite a challenging year. Thank you for continuing to trust us as your supply chain partner.
Sincerely,
John Sell
