From mailroom to head of a Growth 500 Listed Company
October 31, 2019
Told that the part-time mailroom clerk position he was interviewing for at CIBC was a ‘dead-end’ job, Anthony Whyte asked for an opportunity to use it as a stepping stone to work his way up the organization.
The request was granted and, six years later in 1994, the interviewers were reporting to him.
With a sharp eye for business openings, Whyte and a partner started Go Logistics Inc. 2005 that has been recognized as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies with a five-year revenue growth of 304 per cent.
Canadian Business and Maclean’s ranked the company #277 on the 30th annual Growth 500 list whose principals were invited to the 2020 Growth 500 Chief Executive Officers summit which is an exclusive event designed specifically for the leaders of Canada’s fastest growing companies.
Growth 500 Program Manager Beth Fraser said the rising organizations are truly remarkable.
“Demonstrating foresight, innovation and smart management, their stories serve as a primer for how to build a successful entrepreneurial business today,” she pointed out.
Making the esteemed list, said Whyte, is a huge honour.
“It reflects the confidence of our customers and our commitment to partnership and collaboration,” he noted. “This recognition is the result of three generations of Guyanese rice farmers who focussed on building businesses and opening opportunities for me and my five siblings. I watched my grandparents from Leguan turn over that land into crop verticals that sustained revenue and growth.
“As a child, it took me some time to fully understand the importance of reinvesting and diversifying the family business. My grandmother took the profit made from rice and bought cash crops to sell in the market. The fundamentals of business haven’t changed much since then. You have a product and you need to get it into the hands of your customer. We do that, providing the infrastructure and network to make it happen quickly and reliably.”
Most successful business leaders don’t get where they are without starting on the ground floor.
Migrating from Guyana in May 1982, Whyte’s first job was working in a factory that made speaker boxes.
Using two subways and a bus to commute, he earned $3.25 an hour.
“One of my tasks was to sand the boxes before they were sprayed,” said Whyte. “There were no masks back then, so I was inhaling most of the sediment I was removing.”
After six months, he changed jobs and his hourly rate increased by $1.25.
“I thought the raise was great, so I enrolled in night classes at DeVry University, studying electronics,” Whyte said. “My goal at the time was to work for Spar Aerospace that was developing an arm for the shuttle to go to the moon.”
With elderly parents and younger siblings to help support, he quickly found out he was over his head financially and had to quit the four-year program after six months because he couldn’t come up with the monthly $250 tuition fee.
Dabbling in auto body work after school in Guyana, Whyte wrote and passed the provincial Auto Body and Collision Damage Repairer test.
Realizing, however, that wasn’t a career he wanted to pursue, he hit the road in search of work in other fields.
It was while walking down Lawrence Ave. W. that Whyte saw the advertisement for the CIBC part-time mailroom position.
After 12 years with the bank, rising to the position of Senior Manager of Operations of the Credit Card Production Department, he was offered a package.
“They were restructuring and I was given an opportunity to be a manager at a call centre in Halifax, but I didn’t want to relocate with the family because my father-in-law was ill,” said the married father of three grown children.
While playing cricket for Caribbean Limers, a teammate introduced Whyte to a friend who owned a courier company.
“I had a good grasp of what was needed to facilitate the safe distribution of credit cards, so we did that for nine years before starting Go Logistics,” he said.
Philosophical differences resulted in Whyte using a shotgun clause to buy out his partner in 2014.
“I wanted to do things differently, including focussing on employee training, and take the business to the next level,” he said. “It is employees’ effectiveness that lay the foundation for growth and we want to give our people, who are our greatest asset, every chance to be happy and feel they are wanted.”
Two years ago, Go Logistics collaborated with Amazon to launch their first third party Canadian sortation centre that’s consistently rated among the top performers in North America.
Dedicated to the ‘Final Mile’ component of the supply chain, the company serves clients in the retail, e-commerce, third-party logistics and manufacturing sectors.
“We have built our business around the ‘Final Mile’ delivery which is a space that the big players in the industry are limited to because of the package dimensions they cater to,” said Whyte whose sons, Daniel and Anthony, represented Guyana in soccer.
The services offered include courier, sortation and e-commerce home delivery.
“With the growth of e-commerce and the burgeoning tourism, sport and oil & gas sectors, there are great opportunities for local entrepreneurs looking to distribute their products to meet consumer demand,” said Whyte who is a consistent charitable donor to organizations in Canada and the Caribbean. “Based on our track record when it comes to growth, Go Logistics is poised to partner with Caribbean industry leaders to expand their businesses.”
In 2018, Go Logistics sorted and distributed nearly 15 million packages in Canada.
Averaging $60 million in revenues annually, Whyte’s target is $100 million in the next five years which he’s confident will be achieved before 2024.
Trusted and qualified family members are making significant contributions to the company’s development.
Whyte’s daughter, Amanda Whyte, is the company’s Vice-President, older brother, Richard -- who was the defunct MicroSkills Finance & Business Development Director for 17 years -- is the President, and the youngest sibling, Dexter, is the Fleet & Facilities Director. Richard’s sons, Kent and Karl, are part of the Operations team.
