Knoxville’s strategic location makes it a prime hub for logistics companies to thrive
R & S Logistics has been invested in the industry and region for more than two decades.
Knoxville is quickly emerging as a logistics hub, largely due to its strategic location. Situated in East Tennessee, the city is within proximity to major population centers in the Southeast. Some of the region’s largest cities—Atlanta, Nashville, Charlotte, and Cincinnati—are just a day’s drive away, making Knoxville an ideal distribution point.
One company in the Knoxville area has been in the business for over two decades, establishing a strong presence in asset-based and third-party logistics and warehousing. That company is R&S or R&S Logistics. Today, R&S owns more than two million square feet of warehousing space, which it owns, operates, and leases to interested customers.
R&S has built valuable connections and garnered clients in industries such as food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, automotive, chemicals, and biomass, to name a few.
teknovation.biz recently sat down with Casey Roths, one of R&S’s Sales & Business Development team members, to learn about the tenacious, gritty approach that has fueled the company’s growth.
“It is a unique privilege to work at R&S. I bear many unique burdens, yet I also have many unique blessings. We work with agility and nimbleness here as a small but growing company. Oftentimes, that means there are days we wear many hats, but it also means we can change and implement new processes, plans, and visions on a dime to serve our customers, team members, and community best,” Roths said. “Having fun and learning along the way is important to us. As some have said at R&S, it’s always an adventure here.”
Each of R&S’s warehouses across five cities in the Southeast is managed by a small team of employees. In Casey’s words, “those team members are incredible team assets. They’re agile, tenacious, and steward our customer’s items as if they were their own.” Many of these facilities are in rural areas, providing valuable job opportunities to local communities.
“We take a lot of pride to be in certain communities throughout the Southeast. We get to take old spaces and make them new, and in this way, we contribute to that local economy with their labor force while also bringing a building that was an eyesore to be a thriving, contributing business in the area,” Roths said.
R&S was founded in 2001 as a small local freight forwarding company with a vision to help their customers. Roths shared, “They didn’t want to handle the logistics operations of their company, and they wanted to focus on their core business. It would be helpful to them if another company like us took the logistics operations off their plate. So, we did just that.” It all started with a 20,000-square-foot warehouse in Loudon, and it’s now a 2 million-square-foot operation across the region – and growing!
In time, the company added brokerage, expanded to other regions, branched into other specialties like pick-and-pack fulfillment, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, and chemicals.
“We grew organically by responding to our customer’s needs, which is often affected by the economy, political shifts, and other macro-economic factors that affect business owners and companies,” Roths explained.
This is a focus Roths is currently emphasizing in her role. She has become increasingly involved in attending local chamber and networking events to strengthen the company’s connections within the business community.
“Watching Knoxville grow and blossom has been so exciting to watch, especially for a company like ours. As Knoxville grows, businesses grow and relocate here. For us, that’s such a great thing. We’re so grateful for all the hard-work our local Knoxville Chamber and Economic Development works to bring good businesses here to help businesses like ours,” Roths said.
Learn more about R&S Logistics.
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