Horizon Logistics is a new company formed by the Halverson Family and Black Gold Farms. Headquartered in Grand Forks, N.D., Horizon Logistics is described as an independent, full-service, asset-based transportation company serving Black Gold Farms, and other grower shippers, to deliver product from the field to customers. The company is part of a vertically integrated farm to forklift operation.
Black Gold Farms decided to open the new business due to what they see as the increasing challenge of reliable transportation and the cost of brokerage.
“In the last few years, we’ve seen the transportation deal be as up and down as ever, and that was affecting our customers,” says Eric Halverson, CEO of Black Gold Farms. “Our No. 1 objective is to make sure we get our potatoes to our customers, when they want them and how they want them. Trucks have a major influence in that.”
Black Gold Farms said it has an internal team that focuses on transportation through a brokerage-style business.
“Our current system has worked well in the past, and we know that our transportation team is the last line of defense in order to create the most value the farm can to our customers,” says Matt Jahnke, director of transportation for Horizon Logistics. “We’ve also seen that drivers are hard to come by because of regulations, time away from home and other factors that are beyond our control. By vertically integrating and really focusing on resolving the transportation piece, by having our own assets, we are able to take some of those factors out of the equation.”