GENCO Company History
GENCO began in 1898 as H. Shear Trucking Company. Leading his horse and wagon through the streets, Hyman Shear delivered commodities in Pittsburgh and surrounding communities. With the advent of motorized vehicles, Hyman mechanized the business with the purchase of his first gas-powered truck in 1917. Within a short period of time, the company was operating a small fleet of trucks and servicing an expanded area.
Following years of success, Hyman’s son Sam ushered in the company’s second generation of leadership in the early 1940s. Under a new name, General Commodities Warehouse and Distribution Company (GENCOS, for short), Sam expanded the delivery fleet and added warehousing and distribution services.
Like his father before him, Herb Shear joined his father, Sam, in 1971, to become the family’s third generation involved in the logistics business. Through the 1970s and 1980s, they expanded the company’s 3PL logistics service offerings to include public warehousing, distribution and product postponement services.
In the late 1980s Herb Shear transformed product returns management by developing a centralized returns process known today as Reverse Logistics. Following development of its proprietary reverse logistics software and product liquidation capabilities in the early 1990s, the company expanded its Reverse Logistics offering to help customers manage and maximize the value of their returned products.
In 1995 the company consolidated divisions and service offerings under one name, GENCO Distribution Systems. With a new focus came new concepts and innovative developments. The company continued its strategic expansion, making several key acquisitions, including forward logistics and warehouse management software development companies, to end the 20th century as one of the leading providers of 3PL logistics and supply chain solutions.
GENCO continued to grow from 2000–2010, expanding its range of service offerings, including transportation logistics, parcel negotiation and audits, unsaleables management, healthcare logistics and government and defense logistics.
In 2010 GENCO merged with ATC Technology Corp. (ATC) to create GENCO, one of the industry’s largest and most innovative product lifecycle logistics companies. Because of ATC’s strategic focus on logistics support for wireless and other high-tech companies, the merger immediately positioned the new company as the supply chain management leader in the consumer electronics sector.
Today GENCO is recognized as North America’s second-largest third party logistics (3PL) provider, a Global Top 50 3PL, and a leader in Product Lifecycle Logistics.
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