Andre Bryan is using the zones to take his business to the next level, and he wants other Black founders to rise with him.

BY FARRELL EVANS, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, INC. @FARRELLEVANS75

Bridgeport Group founder Andre Bryan. Photo: courtesy company

Andre Bryan, the founder and managing partner of BridgePort Group, a Cleveland, Ohio-based global supply chain management and logistics technology firm, is shifting his primary business model. He’s taking advantage of federal Opportunity Zone legislation to move from dry warehousing for industrial manufacturing, where materials are stored between 50 and 80 degrees, to temperature-control cold storage for the bio-pharmaceutical industry, which depends on cold chain logistics for medicines, vaccines, and biologics.

Since starting his company in 2015, Bryan, a 58-year-old, Marine Corps combat veteran, has built BridgePort into a $13.5 million business that serves major companies such as the Eaton Corp. and others in the automotive and power generation industry. But revenue is expected to increase to $43 million over the next five years with the company’s new business model.

To make the shift to cold storage and take the company to the next level, Bryan is building a $52 million, 250,000-square-foot facility on 15 acres in the Fairfax community of Cleveland, a historically Black, low-income area. When construction of the new facility is completed in 16 months, BridgePort will create jobs for more than 120 workers over three years. They’ll help provide storage, fulfillment and delivery services for regulated specialty drugs, vaccines, bio-pharma, medication liquids  and  solids, specimens, and medical devices. All of it in compliance with strict temperature-control requirements.

As BridgePort transitions from a traditional dry warehouse to a cutting-edge cold-chain storage model, the employees have been just as eager to adapt and learn new skills, says Bryan. “Their willingness to embrace change and undergo specialized training in temperature-sensitive logistics has been instrumental in the company’s successful transformation,” he says.

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The company will also expand its current supply chain and cold-chain consulting services to provide low-cost, last-mile delivery services, which helps hospitals, health care........

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