Downtown Wichita firm to hire 200 to 300 more workers in the next six months

A number of things have been prompting King of Freight partners Mike Ricklefs and Greg Bolain to want to expand their downtown Wichita freight brokerage, then news broke last week that Minnesota-based C.H. Robinson Worldwide had substantial layoffs.

“Our biggest competition is laying off (650 workers), so we feel like now is the right time to strike,” Ricklefs said. “That’s just more motivation.”

King of Freight has 560 employees, 274 of whom are brokers, and Ricklefs said he and Bolain are going to hire another 200 to 300 people “probably within the next six months.”

Another part of the expansion is how much sales have grown following the first year of the pandemic.

In 2020, the company had 3% growth. Last year, that number jumped to 62%.

“We had a surge when supply and demand just went crazy,” said CFO Whitney McFall.

So far this year, she said the company has experienced a 36% growth in sales.

Ricklefs said brokers are making an average of $260,000 a year, “which is incredible.”

“Our brokers are just making a killing right now.”

Of those who are also managers, he said several are making more than $1 million annually.

As sales have increased, McFall said support staff have gotten raises, too.

Ricklefs won’t disclose gross or net sales figures.

McFall said the company is moving 5,000 truckloads a week.

King of Freight doesn’t own trucks. It connects companies needing to move products with trucking firms and truckers who are able to move it.

Ricklefs said he’s spent the last year developing load matching software that will allow drivers to drop off loads and pick up more in the same areas.

“Basically we’re going to auto offer them reloads,” he said.

For instance, a driver can drop off a load in Houston, and the software will search for possible reloads specifically in that area. Ricklefs said the idea is that the driver “just works with King of Freight and nobody else.”

In years past, Ricklefs has made predictions about hiring more workers, but that hasn’t always happened.

“We found out we do a lot better business and more business with the higher quality employees than the mass quantity.”

He said the difference now is the amount of growth the company has had, the new software and the layoffs elsewhere in the industry.

“We’re getting a ton of referrals right now,” Ricklefs said.

Almost 400 employees are working out of the former Gander Mountain space at WaterWalk, and the rest work from home. At one point during the pandemic, Ricklefs thought he’d sell the building. He said he’s glad he kept it, but now he’s thinking he’ll eventually have to move out of it for larger space or have a second office.

He said he’s added a pool table, foosball and ping pong to the office along with biweekly cookouts.

“We’re doing a lot to boost morale. We’re having fun.”