Company History

The Early Years

J.M. Swank's history is a story of customer-focused expansion.

It began in 1954, when J.M. Swank started a bakery brokerage business—mostly serving customers in central Illinois with dairy products. To provide better customer service, J.M. leased a tractor/trailer and began offering delivery service. To expand his product list and fill his trailer for the back-haul home, he began purchasing ingredients from the Midwestern-based wet corn millers. Before long, J.M. realized that he could fill the truck with other in-demand ingredients. By establishing traffic lanes based on targeted customers by geography, and the number of drops a truck could manage, J.M. maximized the load capacity of each truck. As volume expanded, via the "shared" freight concept, J.M. Swank purchased JRRW Transport to better manage all of its freight needs.

Major Sales and Distribution Expansion

In the mid-1980's, the Swank company undertook a major initiative to diversify ingredient offerings to three major ingredient categories:

*Dairy:	nonfat dry milk, whey powders, butter, etc
*Sweeteners:	sugar and corn wet milling products
*Specialty:	salt, soy products, oils, spices and seasonings, and grains.

Swank added distribution centers in Dallas, Denver and Chicago to better accommodate the geographic regions being serviced.

In the mid-1990's, Swank created an additional level of concentration: the Industry segment. The following industry classifications were created: Meat, Bakery, Dairy, Prepared, Confectionery and Ethnic.

Moving Forward

The J.M. Swank Co. strongly believes that it is well positioned to provide service in the ever-changing food industry marketplace. We continue to evaluate and expand our distribution model to provide a totally integrated supply chain from the manufacturer to your door.

To address the growing concern for food safety and allow the company to source more ingredients worldwide, J.M. Swank has implemented far-reaching programs including bar coding and product traceability, trailer seal traceability, satellite equipped transportation, product documentation and technical resources.

The J.M. Swank/JRRW Transport organization has experienced many changes over the past 50 years. Throughout these changes, we take pride in our commitment to remain dedicated to our focus on the customer.