Founding of Gulf Winds

Gulf Winds International, Inc. was founded in April, 1996 by Ron Messner, Steve Stewart and Bruce Erftmier (as a junior partner). Both Ron and Steve had many years of warehousing and transportation experience between them so it seemed natural that they would eventually do something of their own. Bruce was an associate of Ron’s for many years and brought extensive warehouse supervisory experience to the team. Their idea was to develop a full service, third party logistics company that would focus on warehousing, land transportation, distribution and consolidation.

Their big break came in late February, 1996 when, then Continental Coffee Products, Co. a long-time Houston based coffee roasting company needed a new warehouse provider for their imported green coffee. To make a long story short, Ron and Steve convinced Continental, that despite neither of them knowing the first thing about coffee, Stewart International could provide the necessary support! Gulf Winds was founded “doing business as” Stewart International, Inc. as a coffee warehousing company. Continental was eventually purchased by Sara Lee Coffee & Tea and Gulf Winds continues to provide coffee related warehousing services to Sara Lee and many other green coffee importers and traders today.

Gulf Winds was instrumental in bringing New York Board of Trade exchange certification to the Port of Houston for imported green coffee in 2003 and was a founding member of the Greater Houston Coffee Association where Steve still serves on the Board of Directors.

Opening of the Gulf Winds Transportation Division

A major turning point came when the company decided to open its own trucking division in 1997. More often than not, outside drayage providers missed scheduled appointments. This made it nearly impossible to efficiently manage the day labor required to hand stack green coffee. Tired of wasting money they did not have, the company leased 5 owner operators in an effort to bring labor costs down and improve on time pickup and delivery of their customers freight. Ron, with many years of trucking experience was the designated dispatcher, and, off they went. Those initial 5 trucks have turned into over 300 today with many in the fleet owned by the company. Gulf Winds is today, the largest hauler (by volume) at the Port of Houston’s Barbours Cut and Bayport Terminals, and, one of the largest in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex.

A key development of the trucking operation came as a result of a major steamship line moving heavy containers into the Houston and Dallas market that required a drayage provider with its own tri-axle equipment. As a condition of getting their business, Gulf Winds began a process of acquiring tri-axle equipment and state permits to accommodate the local movement of heavy containers. Much of the freight was transloaded at their warehouse and delivered inland in light weight over the road vans. Trasnsloading continues as a core business for Gulf Winds today.

Addition of Gulf Winds Brisbane Facility

In the meantime, the company acquired a facility in 1998 located at 6830 Kirbyville to handle Guinness Bass Import Company. Gulf Winds was nominated as one of only four U.S. Regional Forwarding Centers that required a dedicated facility and permitting by the Texas Alcohol and Beverage Commission. Guinness was eventually purchased by Diageo North America, the largest beverage importer in the world, and, Gulf Winds is still one of only four U.S. designated forwarding centers today. As a result of the huge success of that business, the company had to move the Diageo account into a 346,000 sq. ft. facility located at 411 Brisbane in 2001. Brisbane proved to be a strategic location due to Burlington Northern Santa Fe rail siding and its location directly across the street from the Houston BNSF Intermodal Rail yard.

Branching out to Barbours Cut

Knowing that to stay competitive, Gulf Winds would have to find warehousing facilities closer to the Port of Houston. Gulf Winds began making a search for a suitable space. Their opportunity came in late 2002 when Verde Construction approached Gulf Winds with an offer to build a facility to meet the company’s specifications on Barbours Cut Blvd. immediately across from the Port of Houston. The company signed a lease agreement with Verde, who with backing from Granite Properties began construction on a new state of the art 176,000 sq. ft. warehouse and transload facility. The company moved into its new facility in April, 2004.

With the success of the Barbours Cut operation, the company again started looking for more land in the area. Fortunately, Granite Properties provided the answer and the opportunity by offering a plot of land immediately adjacent to their building on Barbours Cut Blvd. Gulf Winds reached a deal with Granite Properties, using Verde Construction to construct an identical facility immediately adjacent to the first building, and, in June, 2005, Gulf Winds took possession of the second building. The two buildings provide over 356,000 sq. ft. of warehousing and transloading facilities making Gulf Winds, by far, the largest operator of its kind at the Port of Houston.

Opening of Gulf Winds CES

Just about the time the search for a second building began, Customs & Border Protection (CBP) issued a Public Notice for bids to open a second CES (Centralized Exam Site) at Barbours Cut. With plans underway for their second building, this presented an ideal opportunity for Gulf Winds to participate in the bid process. The CBP nominated Gulf Winds with a five year contract in mid 2005 as their new CES at Barbours Cut. Today, the company is one of only two CES sites in Houston with Gulf Winds operating the only CES at Barbours Cut.

Addition of Gulf Winds Dallas Transportation Terminal

As many of those in the shipping industry know, a significant volume of container traffic that moves via the Port of Houston is moving into or out of the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. DFW is one of the nations largest retail distribution hubs with heavy cargo flows via the West Coast as well. Large “big box” distribution centers are located there including The Home Deport, JC Penny, Container Store and many others. With Home Depot as a major client with distribution centers in both Baytown and the DFW area, it only made sense for Gulf Winds to expand into the DFW market. So, in March of 2007, Gulf Winds opened an office and terminal in Ft.Worth near the BNSF Alliance Yard, and, today, is one of the largest container haulers in the area. The company has since opened another terminal in South Dallas to service the UP rail terminal.

Branching out to Bayport

With the first phase of the Port of Houston’s Bayport terminal opened in early 2007, Gulf Winds knew they had to be in Bayport in order to position themselves for the anticipated growth in container volume via the Asian all water services. Once again, Gulf Winds partnered with Granite Properties to locate and build a strategically located facility on Old Hwy 146 and Port Road. In March, 2009, Gulf Winds took possession of their new state of the art 226,000 sq. ft. warehouse facility at Bayport.

With the addition of the Bayport facility, the company now provides just under 600,000 sq. ft. of warehouse and transloading facilites at the Port of Houston’s two main container terminals. These strategically located facilities at Barbours Cut and Bayport positions Gulf Winds as the major provider of transload, drayage and distribution services in the Houston market.

Out of Gauge and Project Cargo

In the latter part of 2008, Gulf Winds entered the out of gauge/project cargo market. Gulf Winds opened a project yard on Old Hwy 146 near Bayport Container Terminal and leased or purchased the necessary heavy lift equipment needed for this business for use at their Barbours Cut and Bayport facilities which are equipped with recessed bays for handling flat bed traffic with overhead cranes for heavy lift loading and discharging. Gulf Winds also increased their equipment fleet adding drop deck and double drop deck trailers. With such a diverse group of operations staff, many of whom had experience in that business, Gulf Winds made a smooth transition into the market.

Today

By any measurement standard, Gulf Winds is a remarkable success story. In just 13 years, the company has grown from just four employees with one account to over 500 employees including ILA and contract labor and thousands of accounts with several locations in Houston and Dallas.