With a fresh outlook and a new CEO, Neovia Logistics is exceeding expectations amid growth around the world
With skyrocketing freight costs and more attention than ever on supply chains, Neovia Logistics is fast emerging as a formidable contender in the logistics industry. Based in Dallas, Texas, the leading contract logistics provider is a specialized, pure play partner combining technical expertise with hands-on service to meet the complex needs of its customers around the globe. Neovia genuinely cares about its customers’ success, embracing the ‘human touch’ within partnerships, and collaborating to find the most transformational applications for innovative technologies like AI and automation.
Neovia was founded in 1987 as Caterpillar Logistics Services, designed to support Caterpillar International and its partner companies in the construction, mining, automotive, and energy sectors. In 2012, the company became standalone and adopted the Neovia name as it entered a new era. A series of acquisitions followed, enabling Neovia to strengthen its global presence, particularly in Europe and North America.
Enhancing efficiency
Today, Neovia serves some of the most renowned customers in the automotive, aerospace, industrial, technology, and consumer goods industries. As many of its customers require mission-critical logistics, the company has established a global footprint comprising around 7,500 employees and over 20 million square feet of warehousing space across more than 80 strategically located operational facilities.
To learn more, we sat down with CEO Michael (Mike) Fahy. “We provide a wide range of services covering the entire contract logistics field,” he begins. “That includes everything from service parts, inbound and outbound services, and finished goods distribution to inventory and network optimization, cross-docking, and transport management. Our mission is to add value to our clients’ operations wherever possible, creating positive relationships where we’re a true strategic logistics partner. We truly care about our customers’ success. That’s what sets us apart. We never take a one-size-fits-all approach.
“We’ve grown to cover a diverse range of geographies, including a strong presence in the Americas, an extensive European network, and a smaller but ever-growing presence in the Asia-Pacific region. One of the secrets to our success is scalability. We have a fantastic customer base and can scale very quickly in terms of global operations. That scalability is reflected in the strength of our customer relationships, no matter the size.
“Our broad range of services focuses on adding value and ensuring efficiency within our customers’ operations,” Mike continues. “In our highly competitive industry, we’re constantly challenging ourselves to be as lean and efficient as we can be. In fact, ‘relentless pursuit of continuous improvement’ is an internal rallying cry. We gain increased visibility into our customers’ inventories from handling their products and, among other things, support them with inventory optimization solutions. With elevated levels of e-commerce activity coupled with air and ocean freight challenges, we’re seeing increased demand for this service as our customers look to reduce freight costs. With the continuation of inflated rates, it has never been more crucial to ensure our customers are spending their money well.”
Industry commitments
Many of Neovia’s customers require mission-critical logistics services, an area in which the company excels. “Within the automotive industry, for example, we primarily carry out service parts logistics, supplying dealer networks around the world with critical spare parts,” Mike elaborates. “In the aerospace sector, we’re often called upon to provide parts for aircraft engines or cockpits, which must be supplied within the limited time that the aircraft is on the ground. To ensure that we can fulfill these requests, we’re strategically located close to the airports where our key customers most require our services.
“We support every sector we serve with supply chain optimization and inventory planning, as well as forecasting to help customers position inventory according to predicted demand. Amid all the disruption over the last few years, many companies are faced with an excessive, unnecessary amount of inventory. Through supply chain optimization, we’re helping these customers achieve optimum stock levels to ensure their inventory levels align with market demand.”
Seizing opportunities
As our conversation continues, we’re keen to hear about Mike’s career journey and how he came to be Neovia’s CEO. “My entire career has been in the field of logistics,” he reflects. “I left Ireland for the Netherlands in 1996, where I worked at an Irish trucking and logistics company for 23 years. Having honed my craft and expertise, I worked my way through the organization before moving to the US 13 years ago. In the US, I remained in logistics but worked for an oil and gas company, a couple of software startups, and then joined DB Schenker as CEO of the Americas division.
“I was always aware of Neovia and I wanted a global role for several years when I was fortunate enough to come across the opportunity to become Neovia’s new CEO. I wanted to take a leading role in establishing a fun and enjoyable, yet competitive company culture – a place where people want to join and stay. Although I’ve been super busy since I became CEO in October 2023, there have been great opportunities to impact the business at a global level.”
New Neovia
Mike’s arrival, however, is not the only factor that has transformed the business into what he calls ‘new Neovia.’ “All companies experience cycles, and Neovia is no exception,” he states. “We have a unique history as an OEM, and we have strong, entrepreneurial roots. We’re not the biggest player in the logistics market, but with our global reach and capabilities, we are well positioned to meet and exceed our customer’s supply chain needs. Over the last few years our customers have faced tremendous changes and challenges, which encouraged us to reevaluate our own operations to ensure we had the mindset to be a truly valued partner for them.
“As we saw these changes occurring in the industry, we wanted to awaken the world to our operations as an agile services provider. We assessed our strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities for growth, then decided to reinforce our focus on productivity, quality, customer service, and invest in our people to create a mutually beneficial culture of shared market expertise. The ‘new Neovia’ concept has reenergized our teams to succeed together, and we’ve since outperformed our company norms in terms of combined annual growth rate.”
Challenges and disruptions over recent years have forced global supply chains to foster resiliency, and we are keen to hear how Mike is optimizing ‘new’ Neovia’s operations. “We’ve seen significant shortages and a lack of resiliency, but people are finally aware of how important the supply chain is,” Mike recalls. “When it comes to resiliency, we’re constantly evaluating our inventory levels, optimization tools, and network studies to ensure we incorporate new developments or processes into our operations. We recognize the importance of embedding digitized processes and increased visibility within our operations to prepare for future disruption or uncertainty.
“We’re bringing data scientists into the business as we embrace innovative technologies like robotics, cobots, machine learning, AI, and we recently selected a new global warehouse management system. We are also partnering with new companies like OneTrack.AI, Dexory, ProtexAI, aThingz, and many others to implement solutions like vision technology, which will also enhance our exceptional safety record. With over 250,000 SKUs in some of our warehouses, we design solutions capable of handling such variability, so we’re forming long-term partnerships to monitor trends and developments.
A strong future ahead
“Alongside new technology, we’re embedding sustainable practices across all aspects of the business, from improving the energy efficiency of our facilities and optimizing deliveries to adopting more reusable packaging that eliminates plastic,” he adds. “As we actively reduce our carbon footprint, we are working closely with our customers and supplier network to ensure we think consciously about the environment today and for generations to come.”
With Mike at the helm, Neovia’s recent success is sure to continue, especially as the company upholds its values of efficiency, agility, and customer service with a human touch. Mike agrees: “I’m very excited for the future of Neovia. We will bring our expertise to new industry verticals and expand our presence across the globe by entering new geographies or strengthening our presence in existing regions. It means striving to add even more value to our customers by adopting new technologies and seizing opportunities as they arise.
“While I’m very optimistic for the future of our company and industry, there are many ongoing global disruptions we must be aware of and plan for. No one could foresee the significant challenges we’ve faced during the last five years, and we had no idea how global supply chains would become a topic of casual public conversation. The conflicts we are seeing around the world and the awful human suffering are deeply concerning. I’m hoping through meaningful dialogue and political channels that peaceful resolutions to the world’s conflicts are found. In our industry we are keenly aware and concerned about what’s happening, but we need to maintain focus on our customers and the people in our organizations.
“Our plan is to grow alongside our customers and increase our market share. We will also develop our people, helping them grow and complementing their skills with external talent,” Mike concludes. “We will continue to be a nimble company that can meet those challenging needs. We want to be a partner to our customers and be a company that people want to work with and share our values.”