King of Freight, the freight brokerage firm that always seems to be expanding, is doing it again. “We’ve kind of found a gold mine,” partner Mike Ricklefs said. He’s referring to Addison, Texas, the latest place the brokerage is expanding. Ricklefs has a house in Plano, and he said he noticed how many companies are in Addison, a city north of Dallas. “I saw the opportunity,” he said. “We’re hiring 50 people on the first of May. . . . We’re going to (hire) 50 people probably every 20 days until we can scale up to the thousands.” King of Freight doesn’t own trucks. It connects companies needing to move products with trucking firms and truckers who are able to move them.
A couple of months ago, King of Freight expanded into Little Rock, Ark., too. With 30 employees, it’s not growing as quickly as Ricklefs predicts Addison will. “Little Rock has been kind of slow. It’s kind of a slow-growing culture.” A new office in Tampa, Fla., with 25 employees is doing a bit better, he said. “We’re brand new in Tampa. We’re trying to grow that as much as possible, too.” Ricklefs said one of his top brokers moved there, and ten of his best have moved to Texas. At the Wichita headquarters at the former Gander Mountain building at WaterWalk, King of Freight has 600 employees. Ricklefs said sales are up by 20% month over month compared to last year, and he anticipates adding more employees here as well, including at a future east-side office.
“We’re building a monster office just for brokers,” Ricklefs said of plans on the east side. “I’ve already paid to have drawings.”
The land is across Greenwich from Topgolf. “If you walk out of Topgolf’s front door, it’s right across the street,” Ricklefs said. He said he plans a 25,000-square-foot building, which compares to 90,000 square feet he has downtown. “I’ve had it in the works, and I’m just waiting because we haven’t maxed out the Gander Mountain building yet, but we will by probably early next year.” Ricklefs said he plans to keep the downtown building, which the company owns. “My headquarters is always going to be in Wichita, Kansas.”