Sukhmanjit Singh Sidhu, 26
Founder and CEO, Blackbuck Logistics Inc.
Life Story: For Sukhmanjit Sidhu, the decision to launch an entrepreneurial venture in transportation came naturally. Sidhu was raised by a family of entrepreneurs in India’s Punjab state: his grandfather and father had their hands in a number of endeavours, including a mechanics shop, a trucking business and a brick-making operation.
When the younger Sidhu came to B.C. in 2015 to study business management at Douglas College, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do with his life. But soon after graduation, he landed in transportation through a dispatching job with Surrey’s S.B. Trucking, eventually moving his way up into customer relations and account sales.
“Once I felt like I couldn’t learn any more by staying with the company, that’s when I decided to do my own thing,” Sidhu says. That thing—Blackbuck Logistics—is a Surrey-based company that offers transportation solutions to agricultural producers across Canada and the United States. “We are essentially a freight brokerage company,” he explains. “If there’s a farm that needs their goods to be transported from one place to another—say, from their farm to a distribution centre or retailer—our job is to hire the trucking companies and, if they need product stored for a certain time, arrange the warehouse space.” (Blackbuck has deals with over 200 trucking companies, most of which are B.C.-based.)
Sidhu says the Blackbuck advantage is its sophisticated logistics software, which allows for real-time tracking of shipments, as well as digital documentation of all the relevant taxes, charges and certifications.
Bottom Line: When Blackbuck launched in 2021, it had just two employees and revenues of $147,000; a year later, those numbers had jumped to 10 staff and revenues of $2.8 million, thanks largely to the addition of two (big) new clients. Sidhu expects revenues to top $4 million in 2023. Looking ahead, Sidhu is also eyeing a move into last-mile delivery and buying his own five-tonne trucks as an inflation hedge: “Right now, we are fully dependent on subcontractors, and their prices keep going higher.”
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