Emery Worldwide (Emery) was an American air freight forwarder and air cargo carrier founded in 1946.[1] "Emery was a pioneer in the early air freight business – first renting space on existing carrier routes and later developing a full line of dedicated aircraft. For almost 40 years, Emery was the largest freight carrier in the world."[2] Emery was acquired by Consolidated Freightways in 1989,[3] and by United Parcel Service (as Menlo Worldwide Forwarding[4]) in 2004.
History
Emery Worldwide logo in use from 1981 - 1989Emery Worldwide logo in use from 1996 - 2001
Emery Air Freight
In 1946, John C. Emery Sr. and Leonard G. Hunt founded Emery Air Freight Corporation in New York City.[1][5]
Emery was the first air freight forwarder to apply for a license from the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) as a common carrier. At the time, the scheduled airlines considered a freight forwarder with common carrier status as a competitor, and they fought Emery's license application. In 1948, the CAB finally granted Emery common air freight carrier license No. 1.[1]
By 1966, Emery had 60 offices in the US and 30 international offices. The company employed more than 1,400 people. Revenue had grown at a rate of 20% in each of the prior 15 years, and earnings in each year had risen by 35%. Emery was handling 40% of all the cargo handled by the nation's 110 air freight forwards, and its earnings accounted for 2/3 of the total earnings reported by those 110 air freight forwarders.[6]
Following a $3 million investment for a 10-year computer lease with IBM,[6] in 1969 Emery introduced a first-of-its-kind computerized tracking and tracing system called EmCon, short for Emery Control, that it used to keep track of shipments in real time, updating shippers on the progress of their freight from point of pick up to delivery.[1] On Nov. 15 of that year, John Emery Sr. died of heart failure at 67. Two days later, Emery co-founder Leonard Hunt died of cancer.[1]
In the early 1970s, air carriers started to reduce the number of routes available for Emery to use. In response, Emery began leasing planes and, in 1976, introduced the Emery Air Force, a fleet of cargo planes that Emery utilized to move freight, but did not own.[1] By 1977, the Emery Air Force had grown to 16 planes, including two Douglas DC-8s, four Lockheed Electras, four Convair 580s and a variety of smaller planes.[7] It provided Emery Express service for small packages through a hub in Smyrna, TN, and for larger freight through Dayton, OH. At the end of 1979, Emery operated a fleet of 66 leased aircraft.[8]
Emery Worldwide
In 1981, Emery Air Freight changed its name to Emery Worldwide, started buying its own aircraft,[9][10] and created Emery Worldwide Airlines. The same year it built a freight sortation "Superhub"[11] in Dayton,[12] which handled both small packages and large freight and became the center of its North American hub-and-spoke freight distribution network.
By 1983, Emery was operating a fleet of 64 aircraft through its Dayton hub.[13] This fleet was comprised mainly of Boeing 727 and Douglas DC-8 freighters.
As of late 1984, Emery was “offering the longest list of services in the air-freight industry”, had “made itself No. 1 in air shipments of heavy cargo”, and was “the nation's largest international forwarder of documents, packages and parcels”.[12]
In April 1987, in an effort to increase its presence in the small package market, Emery made a bid for Purolator Courier.[14] It completed the purchase later that year for $306 million.[1] At the end of that same year, Emery’s chairman and chief executive, John Emery Jr., the son of the company’s founder, retired unexpectedly.[15] John Emery Jr. had been named chairman in 1979 and pushed the company to break its long tradition of remaining debt-free, first by borrowing $130 million to buy aircraft and build the Dayton hub, and then by buying Purolator Courier.[12]
Emery was not able to successfully integrate Purolator’s operations with its own and sustained large losses in 1988 and early 1989.[16]
In April, 1989, just two years after buying Purolator, Emery itself was purchased by Consolidated Freightways (CF) for $230 million. They were combined with CF’s smaller air freight division, CF Air Freight, to form Emery Worldwide, A CF Company.[1]
Emery Worldwide, A CF/CNF Company
CF was “unable to reverse Emery's losses, which were running at $1 million a week at the time of the acquisition” and “fell into a financial crisis”. In 1990, CF reported its first loss since 1961 and suspended its common stock dividend for the first time in 19 years. In July, Lary R. Scott, CF’s president and chief executive officer and the architect of the Emery deal, resigned under pressure. CF named Arthur C. Bass as chairman and chief executive of Emery. Bass, who had previously served as vice-chairman and president at Federal Express, expressed confidence that he could return Emery to profitability but added that he wasn’t yet sure how to do it.[17] Bass lasted less than 6 months at Emery, and resigned in March, 1991. Bass was replaced by CF marketing vice president W. Roger Curry.[18]
Curry “revamped Emery’s overnight service and removed it from competition with other parcel companies. By 1995, Emery had made quite a comeback and was the air freight industry’s most profitable firm.”[19]
In 1996, CF spun off its long-haul less-than-truckload units and changed its name to CNF Transportation Inc.[20] As a result, Emery’s name was changed to Emery Worldwide, A CNF Company.
Emery’s in-house cargo airline, Emery Worldwide Airlines, had its planes grounded on August 13, 2001, following an FAA investigation that discovered more than 100 violations of safety regulations, and after the crash of Flight 17 on February 16, 2000. It officially ceased operating on December 5, 2001.[21] In response, all of Emery's cargo operations were subcontracted to other cargo carriers, with “no disruption of service” to customers.[22]
In late 2001, Emery Worldwide was renamed Emery Forwarding.[4]
Emery Forwarding
On January 1, 2004, Emery Forwarding's name was changed to Menlo Worldwide Forwarding.[4]
Menlo Worldwide Forwarding
In October, 2004, Menlo Worldwide Forwarding was sold to UPS for $150 million in cash and the assumption of approximately $110 million in long-term debt.[23]
Notable Shipments
In 1969, an unlabeled crate containing the painting “Portrait of a Woman and a Musketeer” by Pablo Picasso, which was valued at $75,000 and was being shipped from Paris to Milwaukee, was removed from Emery’s facility in Boston by an employee who took it home with him, reportedly at the direction of his supervisor who wanted to reduce clutter on the dock. When the employee discovered what was in the crate, and realized that the FBI was investigating its apparent theft, he returned it anonymously to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. No one knew who took the painting, or who returned it, until 2023.[24]
In 1983, following baseball's infamous pine tar incident Emery shipped the bat back to its owner, Kansas City Royal slugger George Brett, after league President Lee McPhail ruled that a home run Brett had hit against the New York Yankees on July 24 counted even though there was too much pine tar on the bat.[25]
In 1988, a package addressed from University of Kentucky basketball assistant coach Dwane Casey to the father of basketball recruit Chris Mills reportedly came unsealed in transit, and several Emery employees said they found $1,000 in cash inside, prompting an NCAA investigation.[26] Casey denied sending the package, and in 1990, Emery settled a $6.9 million lawsuit with Casey, who had sued for defamation.[27]
