Allen Lund, short on money but long on talent and the work ethic, launched his company in 1976 with a modest goal of making ends meet. This month, the Allen Lund Co. Inc., headquartered in La Canada, CA, is celebrating its 40th anniversary with about three dozen offices affiliated with the firm and revenues of more than $450 million per year

It’s a very familiar story in the fresh produce industry. “I’m living the American dream,” Lund told The Produce News in early January. “Where else can you achieve this?”

Allen Lund

His story started in Salt Lake City where he began his career as a truck broker. In 1970, he moved to Los Angeles to open a truck office for C.H. Robinson, which is where he remained for the next six years. Opportunity knocked in 1976 and Lund opened his own company with help from an established broker. That year he operated close to the vest, only able to do business with those who were willing to pay within 30 days. He operated under the philosophy that if you treated customers well they would come back again and again.

While he acknowledged that the company was launched on a shoestring and a prayer and luck played a role, he noted that he did have a plan and he executed it well. Growth was slow and steady and within several years, he opened his first branch office in Atlanta.

Lund said the first turning point for his firm was 1980 when the trucking industry was deregulated. At first blush that could have had a negative impact on a relatively small truck broker operating in a specific niche. Lund explained that fresh produce and other ag products were exempt commodities that could be hauled by anyone, while most goods were regulated commodities hauled by licensees in those industries. Lund was connected with some textile manufacturers in which he brokered the hauling of cotton and beans to the West Coast with produce loads as the backhaul. He lost his niche as rates dropped on the westbound haul and other operators took that business. But many other products were now open to the Allen Lund Co., and the firm experienced quick growth. Lund expanded into several different commodities and found several different niches.

Though with pride he calls himself “a produce man” and that is the area of the business that he loves the best, Lund said fresh produce hauls today account for about 40 percent of the 260,000 loads the company arranges each year. “Produce and other food products represents about 75 percent of our business,” he said.

The diversification is impressive as the transportation company hauls many, many different items. “We do about 25,000 loads for Coke every year — mostly in the Minute Maid division,” Lund said, illustrating the diversity of the firm’s portfolio.

Over the years, he has been joined by his three sons in the company — David, Ken and Eddie — as well as by a son-in-law, Steve Doerfler, who is the company’s chief financial officer. And the first member of the third generation has also found his way to the family-run company.

Looking over those 40 years, Lund said that other than deregulation — which completely changed the business “and made us what we are today” — the advent of technology has been the biggest factor in change. From improved technology in the engines to the ability to track the truck and driver on a 24/7 basis, Lund said technology has altered the business. Customers not only want to know when the load will arrive, but where it is and what the temperature is of the load at any given minute. “Customers are looking for more and more data,” he said.

Lund called technology a “wonderful tool” that enables the broker to provide the information customers seek.

Though he spends a portion of his year at his ranch in Utah, Allen Lund is still a very active member of the company and has no plans to change that. “Even when I am at the ranch, I am on a conference call with the office every day. I have no intention of leaving. I’ve told them that as long as they will have me I am going to stay. I love doing this. I’d rather be doing this then playing cards at some country club,” he quipped.