It only took Odyssey Logistics 22 years to realize that Charlotte was the best place for its headquarters. Now that CEO Hans Stig Moller has put a stake in the Queen City, the diversified transportation company is excited about its potential growth.
Odyssey Logistics was formed in 2002 by former Union Carbide executive Bob Shellman after Dow Chemical acquired the company a year earlier for more than $10 billion. The logistics business stemmed from Union Carbide’s $650 million budget for managing and transporting chemicals and other raw materials and finished goods. Union Carbide was a pioneering chemical company whose products included Energizer batteries, Glad bags and Prestone antifreeze.
Since then, independently owned Odyssey has stitched together 17 acquisitions to create a $1 billion-plus revenue, 2,000-employee business that is now centered on four main divisions. One unit involving managed services has been based in Charlotte since 2003, giving the company a long history with North Carolina.
The same can be said for Moller, who came to Charlotte himself in 2003 as an executive for Maersk, the Denmark-based shipping organization that bought Sea-Land Service in 1999. From 2008-13, he led Maersk’s Bridge Terminal Transport unit, which was sold to a private equity company and then XPO Logistics. After that, he worked for XPO and later, in consulting posts.
In 2023, Odyssey hired Moller as CEO with the option of staying in Charlotte, rather than move to the company headquarters in Danbury, Connecticut. That’s where Union Carbide had been based since 1983.
One of Moller’s tasks included building a strong executive team. As he and HR colleagues recruited for dozens of key jobs, he quickly realized that logistics executives liked living and working in Charlotte. He mostly credits the cost of living and the city’s convenient, robust airport.
“As we looked at the C-suite positions, we came to find out that the talent pool was significant in Charlotte,” he says. “We posted roles for both Charlotte and Danbury and a lot of them were being filled in Charlotte. So it was kind of a natural migration of movement of talent, from Danbury to Charlotte.’
Earlier this year, Odyssey moved into a 23,390-square-foot space at Whitehall Corporate Center in southwest Charlotte. The offices house more than 80 employees involved in IT, human resources, procurement, sales support, marketing and commercial operations. The 60-employee Managed Services division has a separate office, also in southwest Charlotte.
Odyssey’s other three divisions cover marine logistics, transport and warehousing, and intermodal services.
While its most recent acquisition was in December, the overriding focus is internal growth more than additional deals, Moller says. Each division has growth potential, he adds, though the most mature division is marine logistics, which mainly involves providing logistic services to companies serving Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico under Jones Act rules. The federal law essentially mandates that goods shipped between U.S. points must be transported on American-flagged ships.
The transport and warehousing business is based in Chesterton, Indiana, and it specializes in the movement of large steel coils and paper rolls. Because of the requirements of moving such large products, Odyssey owns a fleet of trucks needed to transport pieces.
But those trucks and other capital equipment make it distinct from most of Odyssey’s business, which is considered “asset light” in the industry jargon. The focus is more on consulting and brokerage services rather than the actual movement of goods, which is handled by other companies.
“Logistics is really becoming a technology differentiator more than anything else,” Moller says. “If you don’t have good technology, you really don’t have a strong value proposition to sell your customers.”
That’s why a key hire was Chief Information Officer and Chief Digital Officer Maneet Singh, who is responsible for Odyssey’s technology and cybersecurity strategy and leads major IT transformation to foster growth. He had previous management jobs at Snap One, XPO Logistics and other companies, “Since I’ve joined Odyssey, I have been working on getting the systems connected and getting all the data in one place so we can make decisions based on key performance indicators,” he says. “You’ve also got to make sure it is secure, so cybersecurity is essential.”
Moller is a native of Denmark and like several of his top associates, he has spent much of his career on global activities. But he emphasizes that while many customers are global-minded, Odyssey is very domestic and niche-oriented. It does not seek
to compete in international markets against much larger rivals.
Since its split from Union Carbide, Odyssey has largely been owned by private equity companies. Since 2017, the principal owner is the Jordan Group, a New York firm that is also the majority owner of Charlotte’s Bojangles’ fast food chain and Greensboro’s Camco RV parts manufacturer.
Jordan also owns six other logistics companies and has significant expertise in the industry, which Moller calls an advantage for Odyssey. “There’s nothing worse than having bosses who don’t understand your business,” he says, and that is not the case with Jordan.
“What I remain focused on is how do we build the best business and the owners will eventually decide when they’re going to sell the business,” Moller says. “We know that private equity companies are in the business to sell their companies. That’s what they do for a living. My role is to position the business in the best possible way for the current holder and also for a future owner.”
From the new/old perch in Charlotte, Moller is content. “I can tell you, we’re very pleased to be here and it’s worked out great.” ■