Lori Boyer
Welcome to Unboxing Logistics. I’m your host, Lori Boyer. Today we have a really interesting episode, kind of a, a request from some of our customers. You’ve probably seen in the news lately there was a, a big, exciting merger of Sendle and First Mile, and ACI Logistix has all come together and formed FAST Group.
So we’ve been having some of our customers ask, what does that mean? What, you know, what do you need to know as a shipper? And so today we have brought on a really exciting guest. We have Keith Somers, who is now the new CEO of FAST Group. Keith, welcome.
Keith Somers
Thank you, Lori. And thank you to EasyPost for having me on your show.
Lori Boyer
Absolutely. We’re gonna throw all the hard questions at you so that everybody, all of our shippers can know, what does it mean, what changes does this involve and all of the good stuff. Before we even start on that, Keith, one thing that we’ve been asking our guests this season is the name of a person, or on the flip side, a role in the industry of someone you really admire.
And I would love to kick it off by hearing that from you.
Keith Somers
Out of grad school, I was in Hewlett Packard for a few years, so I always resonated with the, the story of starting your business out of a garage. And the founder and, and former CEO of First Mile, Devin Johnson literally started his business out of his garage, getting customers, driving his trucks out to pick up the product, bringing it back to the garage, figuring out how to print labels, and then inject those labels into USPS and other delivery networks.
So I admired his journey and company so much I acquired First Mile.
Lori Boyer
I love that so much because I feel like here in the industry there are so many who are scrappy, who really are that exact story you’re talking about, Keith, straight from the garage. And we have customers who absolutely started that and, and went huge.
We have those watching today probably who may even be in their garage starting a shipping business, starting a retail business, ecommerce, all kinds of things. Love it, love, love, love it. So let’s talk then we’re gonna jump over straight to the meat of it, ACI Logistix, First Mile, Sendle, they have merged together.
What was the driver behind that, Keith? What? What was kind of the vision with that?
Keith Somers
Well, I think it’s important is to give you a little bit about my background so it all kind of ties together. So I come from really traditional kind of old school operational roots. My grandfather and uncle started ACI in 1965, so it actually turned 60 years old this year.
I literally, out of undergrad, grew up on the shop floor, dispatching drivers, overseeing routes, helping out with customer service, did sales and marketing, and even a little tech. I, I built a, back in 1998, a, a, an access database, which was a precursor to CRMs of the future.
Lori Boyer
Back when that was like super high tech forward, everything. I love it.
Keith Somers
I literally bought a book How to For Dummies for, access. Yeah. So I built it, this is before I left the company and it, it was CRM and complaint management system. And so after four years in ACI, I left, I went back to grad school to get my MBA at University of Southern California with an emphasis on supply chain.
‘Cause that was really calling to me. And that summer I had the amazing opportunity to do an internship again in operations on the shop floor of TRW Automotive Plant in central Mexico, helping them streamline their, their kiting and, and assembly operations. So super cool experience, but it’s a continuous theme.
Graduated worked for HP as I mentioned for, for several years in their supply chain group both in laptops and desktops. So managing RFQs managing the business relationships with our strategic partners. A lot of travel to China and Europe, and I guess I just got a thing for strategic partnerships.
That was kind of what inspired me the most. At, at a global stage really. So as the story goes, my, my old man made me an offer I couldn’t refuse back in 2002 to come back and, and run ACI. And it was, at its core it was a print media distribution company. Delivering newspapers, phone books, other things.
So when I started, it was several million dollars of revenue. We scaled it throughout the country, got to nearly a hundred million. Along that journey, I got my first iPhone and realized I was gonna have to reinvent the company.
Lori Boyer
I was gonna say phone books and newspapers, Keith.
Keith Somers
Yep. So.
Lori Boyer
We, we’re in the future now.
So we see what’s happening, writing on the wall there.
Keith Somers
Yep. Yep. So I saw it thankfully coming. And believe it or not, that business was spun off in this merger and it’s actually still doing quite well today, but that’s a separate story for a separate day. And so we literally changed out the engine of our plane at altitude.
I hired our first employee, Kevin Collins from Newgistics, brought him on to build out a small, small parcel logistics company. And we had along the way a couple of mergers and acquisitions of some smaller Boltons and several hundred million parcels later. Here we are.
Lori Boyer
Wow, that is crazy. That, I love that you have been China, south America, Europe, you went everywhere, came back to your roots, and here we go.
Keith Somers
In this theme of supply chain operations, it’s just kind of been in my blood.
Lori Boyer
I, I love that actually. Honestly, so often people come to supply chain from all kinds of weird routes and, and a lot of times it’s this big sort of hidden world nobody knows about unless you were raised in it, unless you saw it from the beginning. So I love when we have those people who have really cut your teeth on supply chain from the beginning.
That’s super cool. Okay, so we’ve merged these companies. We’ve got Fast. So first, I guess. If you were a customer and have been a customer of Sendle, ACI Logistix, First Mile, what does that mean for them?
Keith Somers
So it really comes down to, to capabilities. And we have this mantra here, better together, delivering more.
Legacy ACI focused on the enterprise segment had high volume sortation systems, really efficient middle and last mile. That was kind of its thing but it didn’t have a real customized pickup infrastructure at scale or a really robust receiver experience platform. First Mile, their, their segment was really SMB clients, so they had a really amazing first mile pickup infrastructure and a, a really good kind of decision making routing engine that could tap into multiple delivery networks throughout the country.
But they’re really missing their own high volume sortation and delivery network and that consumer experience platform that Sendle has. So for Sendle, they had this booming platform for small businesses to print labels and to get access to better rates relative to just off the shelf and rack, and built this amazing consumer experience platform.
But we’re really missing that enterprise grade sortation and delivery solution. So that was a wow moment. And we’d been working with First Mile for years. They were a client of ours and we were integrating with Sendle, just like, what if, what if we brought all these companies together and had a one stop shop for customers and clients of any size small businesses, medium, enterprise clients that could get customized pickup delivery anywhere to anywhere.
Ground, expedited, air cargo. Combined with, you know, great time in transit, really efficient cost position and award-winning consumer experience. So that was like the wow moment, bringing all that together.
Lori Boyer
That was a dream. And it actually came true. ‘Cause I know a lot of times we think those things. Wouldn’t it be amazing.
Keith Somers
And it was worth all the effort.
It was not easy.
Lori Boyer
I was gonna say it actually happened.
Keith Somers
Two companies coming together is pretty intense, but, but three it’s we’re right in the first inning of this whole thing.
Lori Boyer
Okay, so Keith, what does it then mean for the customers of each of these three different, if they were already a customer, what, what are the impacts?
Keith Somers
So they get access to the other previous brand’s capabilities.
Lori Boyer
Okay. Just right out the gate.
Keith Somers
Yeah. Like Sendle can have customized pickup and be injected into the network and get better time and transit and still connects to their consumer experience. ACI clients and, and First Mile clients will get access to, to Sendle award-winning RX platform. RX, we refer to that as receiver experience platform. Like where is my parcel. With literally Johnny on the spot answers to that question and, and number of self-help and automated and call center support. So at scale, both ACI, legacy ACI and First Mile clients get access to, to that capability, which we’ll talk a lot more about.
And I just wanna say one thing. The Sendle RX experience has what’s known in the industry and a lot of industries. It’s an a customer sat metric called NPS, net promoter score. And a lot of people know what it is, yet whoever doesn’t I’m no expert in it, but there’s a lot of customer surveys that go out to clients that use the service or buy a product and anybody that scores six or less, that’s a detractor. And anyone that scores over seven is, is a promoter. So you just do the math of all these surveys that come back and Sendle has a score of 75, which is kind of incredible.
Lori Boyer
It’s insane.
Keith Somers
Yeah. It’s better than Disney, Apple. So that’s the standard they’ve set. So to give all the clients access to that kind of receiver experience, we’re we’re just thrilled.
Lori Boyer
That’s amazing. And that’s amazing. And for now, their contracts or whatever they have remain the same?
Keith Somers
Well, we’re integrating everything and we’re, we’re integrating the capabilities so we can provide all the capabilities, whereas the First Mile pickup for any of the brands the Sendle RX experience for any of the brands, access to the delivery network for any of the brands all at scale.
And that’s happening as we speak.
Lori Boyer
Okay, perfect. That’s amazing. Now we are, you know, in the midst already of peak season. You know that’s obviously a critical time for anybody in any network, as you know. How, how has, you know, what, what are you doing to make sure that your customers are not gonna be seeing interrupted service during this time?
Keith Somers
So there’s a lot of pre-work that we did. We closed the deal the first week of August. So the very first thing we did before touching anything else was consolidate the, the, the network team from all three companies. To, to work out the bugs, put, organize the team around the, the, the tools that we had from each of the different companies wasn’t all integrated yet, but at least get all the, all the team on one page.
And in the last month it’s really rebalancing the delivery network to get ready for peak. And, and we’re stabilizing everything. Literally real time. And we’re, we’re super excited to deliver a a fantastic peak peak for our clients.
Lori Boyer
Perfect. Okay, so you mentioned that, you know, you’re stronger on first mile national distribution.
What does that really look like in practice? Like, help me understand that from a, a practical standpoint.
Keith Somers
Yeah, sure. So say you’re a Sendle client and now you get this customized pickup at your facility with a branded truck and an employee driver, and you get to know that driver. So you get that initial engagement to, to really know that there’s a, a human that belongs to the company on the, the other end of all this.
Then that load or that parcel gets immediately inducted into enterprise grade, high volume sortation at speed and precision. And then it gets injected into interconnected delivery network that that can really deliver on any different service type, whether it’s expedited ground, air, cargo. So all that comes together with the receiver experience.
Somebody says, where’s my parcel? They get that Sendle RX experience, NPS 75. Really clients of any size can enjoy this now. And we could grow with a client. They could start in their garage and maybe they’re selling yoga pants and they’re gonna be the next lululemon. They could stay with us the entire journey.
Lori Boyer
That’s fantastic.
Keith Somers
So that was really part of the the wow factor as well for us.
Lori Boyer
How has been merging all your technology? Like I feel like that is so, so tricky. Tech is hugely important today the tech stacks and whatnot. What, what have you been doing on the technical standpoint to make sure everything’s smooth and, and that that goes well?
Keith Somers
So we made a lot of changes real fast operationally, but we’ve been very slow to integrate to one tech stack, ’cause it’s so sensitive. We did a lot of show and tell pre-close for, for each tech team. So everybody got a really good idea of what the capabilities were and if there were any gaps, what they were.
So we just leveraged for the clients that each client is currently sticking with the, the, the tech stack that they were already on. And we will begin that integration of tech post peak.
Lori Boyer
Smart, smart. I, I totally get that. That’s, that’s awesome. What, what are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far?
Just merging three big brands, the whole process, technology, people, processes, all the pieces. What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned so far?
Keith Somers
In grad school, we studied quite a few Harvard case studies about mergers, the pitfalls, the challenges, the failures, the successes. And the, the one common element that rang true to me throughout all of them was laser focus.
You’ve got to stay focused. And integration can take 18 months or more. So you might think you’re done and you’re not. So it’s really to stay focused on what the primary directive is. So legacy ACI had been through three acquisitions in the last seven or eight years, and, and each one had a very specific purpose.
One was to get specific technology, another was to get a certain talent and operating model. Another one was, was to get a literally a book of business. So you ignore all the shiny objects ’cause there’s a lot of opportunities, and you really stay focused and true to what that core mission is until that box is checked.
So that’s one of the learnings is, you know, with especially bringing three companies together, is to be laser focused. Not just, it’s not just one priority, it’s several. But we gotta make sure that there’s super clarity around those priorities.
Lori Boyer
You’re laser focused on what your, your foundational goals.
A thesis, and priorities are and not distracted by, wow, that’s really cool. Or, whoa, we could do this. Stick to that foundation. Is that what you’re saying?
Keith Somers
Yes. And you have to say no a lot in the beginning.
Lori Boyer
Okay. Oh, Keith. Not my favorite word.
Keith Somers
Not mine either. But hey, somebody, we gotta do it right.
Lori Boyer
Honestly, that’s a great lesson for everyone out there watching. Say no, stick to the basics and the foundation. It is really easy. I think these are actually just great life lessons. These are like lessons from Keith, but stick to what really, really matters. Don’t distracted by the sparklies. And say no where you need to say no.
What else have you learned?
Keith Somers
Yeah, one, one other. I think this one is actually kind of cool from a kind of a 50,000 foot level is there’s, what I’ve really learned and discovered just in the last couple months, and I kind of knew it intrinsically, is companies, they have SOPs and processes, but there’s really kind of hidden rules of the road.
How decisions are made in an organization, how people act, what language they use how things really get done. And it’s really challenging to bring three companies together, three organizations and cultures together and, and like hit the ground running day one because people could talk by each other thinking they’re communicating. Who have spent a lot of time that this first couple months is really trying to focus in on what people are saying to make sure everybody else is understanding and then slowing down to get that grounding before you can speed up. So that was really the first month and a half, is really making sure we’re understanding each other, that everybody knows how delivery plans are met in one company versus another.
What certain departments might focus on X, Y, and Z and a department with a similar name and a different company might focus on A, B and C. And we just need to make sure we level set everything so we can move forward fast together.
Lori Boyer
I love that you said to slow down so you can speed up. That is so smart and so hard to do.
Keith Somers
It’s easier said than done.
Lori Boyer
So hard to, I’m a go, go, go kind of person, Keith. I get an idea and I’m like, let’s do it.
Keith Somers
That makes two of us.
Lori Boyer
But slowing down, so that when you are going fast, you’re not just wrecking, it’s not just a wreck. I, I love that you brought up the culture aspect. ‘Cause to me, and the people part, you know, we got the technology, we got the processes.
You’ve gotta merge them all together. And this is true. Anyone who’s watching, just if you’re trying to work with your own company, if you’re trying to align with different departments, all of these kind of things, these lessons that Keith are teaching us are still so, so applicable. But how do you manage that cultural element?
How do you, you know, you’ve talked about slowing down and listening, but how do you get everyone else kind of to do that and, and to keep that right cultural mix?
Keith Somers
Well, it’s not easy, and the way I, I framed it because there’s definitely different cultures with the three companies. It’s what are the common values of, of each culture, even if we name them something differently, like to get anchored in that.
The way I framed it is it’s not which culture wins out. We get to come together to create a new culture. Remember, better together, delivering more. How, how can we grab the best of all cultures and, and deliver on a new promise for the company? And we’re in the process of doing that. We’ve sent out surveys to the entire company.
There’s been focus groups with team leads. So we’re trying to build a culture of gratitude. Because you cannot, in this industry, move as fast as we need to go and charge as hard as we need to without really showing appreciation for every individual. So there may be people that step on each others’ toes, or there’s gonna be conflict, because we’re driving toward common goals as reasonably fast as we can.
Lori Boyer
I love that Keith. I’ve been in multiple companies where people are deciding the values and, and picking, you know, what it’s gonna be. And that’s one of the first times I’ve heard gratitude and I love it. I mean, gratitude is shown by, just by research, by studies, you know, all those Harvard business reviews you’re talking about, they’re, on the importance of gratitude and the strength of it and, and the way that it can help you be calmer and more collected and work together well. Fantastic choice.
Keith Somers
Callouts all the time in, in our meetings, town halls, on Slack.
It, it’s, it’s kind of a glue that’s bonding us because we’re looking for opportunities to call out awesome behavior or effort or results.
Lori Boyer
It’s perfect during a merger of three whole companies. It’s so important.
Keith Somers
You, you can’t do this without conflict or hurt feelings or, you know, concerns. Those are natural.
So we, we just keep coming back to gratitude.
Lori Boyer
Yeah, I love it. Okay, so beyond building your own employee kind of culture, your trust, what about customers? So how are you managing, making sure you’re still including that incredible customer experience, that no one’s falling through the cracks? All of that.
Keith Somers
So we’ve ring-fenced, ring-fenced, each brand every, the clients know within that brand, that brand is still here to support you.
In the same way we’re gonna continue to meet you where you’re at. And oh, by the way, we’re bringing in new services from this merger, this combined company and layering those in and, and articulating the, the value of these different services. That’s really it. And we’ve let them know, they’ll be, try to educate our clients that there may be changes in the future.
But you’re still gonna get the best of of us throughout the journey.
Lori Boyer
Yeah. So it’s really kind of an exciting era, not a scary era. As you look beyond sort of, you know, I imagine the first six to 18 months is a, is a lot of figuring everything out and making sure everything’s solid. Looking a little bit past that on your roadmap.
You know, how is sort of your consumer experience or consumer expectations, how, how is that gonna come into play with your roadmap for the future? We get a little secret glimpse.
Keith Somers
Well, we’ve got an amazing product team that’s coming together to put a, a killer global product roadmap in, in front of us, driven by our priorities.
But I think beyond that, certainly speed, convenience, sustainability. Those are gonna speak loudly to, to our clients of today and tomorrow. But what I do see is a lot of companies that are getting really good at time in transit and driving down prices. So I think that’s gonna kind of be commoditized.
So I, we, we, we have our own ideas of where we’re gonna differentiate, in addition to doing what is, is just foundational.
Lori Boyer
Foundational, but we got a little sparkly excitement out there too.
Keith Somers
Yes, we do.
Lori Boyer
It’s what keeps life fun.
If you have one reason, Keith, that you feel like people should be excited about FAST Group, just one. That’s gonna be hard. One reason that people should be excited and not nervous about FAST Group what would that be?
Keith Somers
Yeah, of course, it, it’s assumed and foundational that you gotta have great time in transit, be efficient deliver the goods on time.
But where we’re gonna differentiate is that receiver experience at scale. So when somebody says, where’s my parcel, there’s an answer in the way they want to get that answer, whether that’s live voice chat through email. We meet them wherever they are and continuously update them until they’ve felt like they have gotten the happy path for their parcel.
Lori Boyer
I love it. The receiver experience. Fantastic. Okay, we’re almost done. I have a couple more questions. First, I wanna know what’s keeping you up at night? You know, tell me the truth. You’ve just branched, you’ve just launched a brand new company. We’ve got a crazy market and everything else in the world going on with it is crazy right now.
What keeps you up at night, but what also gets you really excited about the future?
Keith Somers
There’s really two things that, that keep me up. One are the unknown disruptions, and there’s been quite a few the last couple years. There’s been some major players that have gone out. There’s been massive overhaul to the postal network with work share products. The tariffs.
So these we’re nimble company and we always find ways to, to kind of reinvent ourselves and, and extract advantage when there’s disruption. But that it always keeps you know, somebody in my chair up at night and should.
Lori Boyer
I think you’re exactly right. I don’t think, you know, I interview a lot of people and I hear a lot, disruption’s the norm.
You know, this is no longer like a, oh, we’ve got this one off. Life just seems to be crazy. So you gotta be nimble, you gotta be resilient, you gotta be flexible.
Keith Somers
And I think just knowing the pitfalls of integrations but as I said, we really got the team focused on those priorities. We’re battle tested as far as integrations, this is our fourth one from a legacy ACI perspective.
First Mile’s been through a, a couple, so I’ve got a, a team of folks that are up for the challenge and, and totally committed locked arms and, and making this work. So I’m, that’s what gives me comfort and inspiration is my team. These guys and girls are amazing.
Lori Boyer
And that’s, is that what helps you get up in the morning, gets you excited, is the people?
Keith Somers
Yes. Yeah. Just working with my team. I like working with the best.
Lori Boyer
Wow. That’s amazing. Okay. Any predictions for 2026?
Keith Somers
Yes, I do. So as I mentioned before, I, I think there’s gonna be more demand for, for speed, reduced time in transit, lower cost. There’s gonna be a lot of providers that that, that give that.
It’s gonna be kind of commoditized, I think at some point. I think there’s a huge opportunity for any company that can provide a one-stop national solution for any business segment, customized pickup, rapid transit times with really robust, you know, receiver experience. Whoever can provide all that, I think is knocking on the door to success.
But what I think is going to define the winner is how good is their receiver experience. That’s what’s gonna win.
Lori Boyer
What I’m hearing from you, ’cause you focused, you talked earlier about the importance of the foundation, not getting distracted. And there’s all the integration and the, and your, and your team and everything.
But it sounds like to me, your foundation is the receiver experience.
Keith Somers
That’s where we’re gonna differentiate.
Lori Boyer
I love it. I, it’s huge and I agree and because the expectations are continuing to rise and rise and rise and people who set themselves about apart. Yeah. That’s really gonna be successful. I love it.
It has been so great learning all about FAST Group. I’m really, really excited to see where you go and what happens in 2026. Keith, if people wanna learn more. Especially, you know, you’ve had three websites and where, where do people go to learn about FAST Group to stay up with you?
Keith Somers
Your show is one good place.
We are asking some big questions about branding and how we’re positioning ourselves right now. So that will be revealed soon.
Lori Boyer
Oh, good. Oh, I can’t wait. I love branding. That’s, you know, part of my wheelhouse, so I am gonna be keeping a close eye on that. Can people connect with you on LinkedIn?
Keith Somers
Yeah, absolutely.
Lori Boyer
Okay, so reach out on LinkedIn. We’ll include a link to where people can check you out in our show note, show notes. But it has been really exciting. I think our customers at EasyPost are gonna be excited to learn about FAST Group. I know our audience out there has been asking and wondering what’s going on with this merger.
So there’s the answers to your questions, everyone! If you have more questions, again, feel free to shoot them over to me, over to Keith. Keith, again, thank you for being here. Any final words?
Keith Somers
Thank you so much, Lori. This has been a pleasure and the best is yet to come.
Lori Boyer
Best is yet to come. See you everyone.
