Courier to boost regional footprint

A regional overnight delivery service based in Texas plans to expand operations to Arkansas in September, offering overnight parcel service to customers in Central and Northwest Arkansas.

Lone Star Overnight's extension into Arkansas is part of a five-state expansion plan that also will grow operations in Kansas, Illinois, Louisiana and Missouri. The company will add about 50 employees in Arkansas as it brings overnight delivery to Little Rock, Conway, Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers.

"We're going to add service in the Little Rock metropolitan area and Northwest Arkansas -- two key population centers that our e-commerce customers have been asking us to add," Richard Metzler, chief executive officer of the company, said Monday.

Delivery will begin in September in Arkansas and the company also is considering a second phase of the expansion to add even more Arkansas cities early next year.

"We'll be looking at coloring in some additional areas but we have to get past the peak holiday delivery season first," he said. "Once we're in the state it's easier to expand."

The Austin-based company, which has been in business 30 years, now delivers in Texas and Oklahoma and parts of Louisiana, which will see more cities added in the upcoming expansion. "We're like a mini-FedEx or UPS, except we operate on a regional basis," Metzler said in describing company operations.

Lone Start offers next-morning guaranteed delivery and ground-economy services. The company offers business-to-business services as well as delivery from large retailers such as American Eagle, Nordstrom, Ulta Beauty and Williams-Sonoma among others. Lone Star will offer drop-box locations and pick-up service.

Business owners and consumers should enjoy more choices and pricing with another provider entering the market, said Jay Chesshir, president and chief executive officer of the Little Rock Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"Anytime you have a leading company within their industry like Lone Star move into serving your area it provides additional choices to people looking to send parcels into the five states they cover," Chesshir said Monday. "Secondly, it creates a more competitive atmosphere for the carriers that are already here."

The company's overnight e-commerce delivery grew by 185% over the past year as more customers were ordering from home during the pandemic, according to Metzler. "We're on track to do that, or more, this year," he added.

As it competes against some of the world's largest companies, Amazon and Walmart, for example, in addition to FexEx and UPS for overnight delivery, Metzler said Lone Star's competitive advantage is better service and better pricing.

"We're also a lot more nimble and flexible in our operations," he added. "We're much more prone to do it the customer's way. We're up against the biggest of the big and we realize we have to have a pretty compelling reason for people to switch."

Lone Star could be an attractive option for Arkansas businesses that also operate in the same five-state region, Chesshir said.

"Given the footprint in which Lone Star operates, it gives an advantage to a company that is sending packages consistently within that footprint," he added. "Those packages could be delivered faster, cheaper and quicker than what other carriers may have available."

Lone Star, a privately held company, has delivery service that covers about 31 million people. The planned expansion would add another 12 million Americans to the network, Metzler said.

The company expects to have revenue of about $100 million this year, he said.

Upcoming Events