Company History

A history of innovation

In 1988, having worked his way through the ranks at Smith’s Transfer Corporation, Reo B. Hatfield made a bold stroke. He founded his own company, Reo Distribution.

Two decades later, after having started in a small Waynesboro, VA, office with a driver and a fax machine, Reo Distribution is global player in transportation with a reputation as a logistics pioneer and a business approach oriented around delivering on promises.

It began simply enough. The emphasis was on generating business wherever it was to be had. Reo Distribution soon discovered a simple and direct need: A company to take care of the details in moving materials from one point to the next, including determining the ideal mode of transport it and identifying the right mix of vendors to get the job done correctly, efficiently and on time. That marked the birth of Reo as a total logistics company.

Some young entrepreneurs operate on fear. Reo did, too, only a different variety: Hatfield explains it by way of acronym:(FEAR) Freight, Eagnerness, Ability and Revenue. Wrapped around a company slogan and a driving philosophy that endures today – “We Deliver on Services and Promises” – Reo began carving out a powerful niche as a company that gets the goods there and backs up its commitments with rock-hard results.

Shortly after its founding, Reo Distribution joined with Allied Logistics based in Huntington, WV, Reo's hometown. That partnership remains in place today. Also, in 1990, Reo moved from the South River Complex in Waynesboro to a site in nearby Lyndhurst with 80,000 square feet of warehouse space. By the mid 1990s, having begun work with Procter & Gamble, Reo had moved again to a still-larger space, this one covering 100,000 square feet in a former grocery store on Second Street in Waynesboro.

As logistics revenues steadily grew, at the rate of about a third a year to more than $50 million today, Reo in 2005 migrated to its current site at One Solutions Way in Waynesboro. Reo’s warehouse capacity has expanded to more than 1 million square feet, with no signs of slowing down.
At its headquarters, Reo features Virginia’s only privately held foreign trade zone, allowing global companies to maintain inventories onsite without facing burdensome tariffs.
Over the years, Reo has been transformed into a prominent, worldwide transportation player, having delivered materials to the Ukraine and Iraq, transported sod to Camp David, shipped memorial pieces of the Berlin Wall and loads of freight to New York City, free of charge, after the 9/11 attacks and stored elephants for the movie “Evan Almighty,” among a slew of other projects.

It’s a rich history that’s still unfolding as Reo takes on still larger projects as well as smaller ones aimed at improving efficiency for both Reo and the company’s stable of more than 400 clients. Hatfield attributes the company’s success to a customer-first way of doing business and the truth and motto of Romans 8:28.