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Sensing opportunity for a Northwest courier service during a time of industry consolidation, Jerry Brazie and Tom Stearns launched their Portland-based delivery company in March 1999.
They started big, with about 80 employees, primarily drivers, serving Oregon. Now they're significantly bigger, with 275 employees, a market area that covers five states and the status of being Oregon's largest courier service. Profitable since 2000, the company, now called Senvoy, obtained revenue last year of $10 million, and is on pace this year to generate $15 million.
"We started the business to serve title companies and mortgage companies, typical messenger clients," Stearns said. "Now we deliver everything from auto parts to medical supplies to office products."
Intensely competitive, the Portland courier industry features dozens of players, from national companies to one-person shops. With each business defining its own market area, figuring market share becomes difficult. In terms of employees, however, Senvoy easily outranks competitors, with about 180 in the Portland area and about 100 elsewhere.
Though based in the central city, Senvoy doesn't emphasize the downtown Portland market-those aren't Senvoy's bicyclists cutting you off. Instead, the company employs five "walkers" for pickups and drop-offs in the business core. Otherwise, drivers perform the job.
Senvoy instead makes its mark by using regular routes-many competitors instead emphasize on-demand serviceand by covering multiple states. It delivers most anywhere in Oregon and Washington, and regularly delivers to the Puget Sound area; Boise, Idaho; Reno and Las Vegas, Nev.; Salt Lake City; and sometimes Northern California. Stearns said he now considers Senvoy competitive with United Parcel Service and Federal Express when it comes to Northwest ground deliveries.
Growth occurred even though...