Glendenning sisters: Bailey, Brena chart clean course for family business
Bailey Glendenning Stark, CEO of Glendenning Brothers, last year hired a fresh-faced but familiar associate to help steer the tank truck carrier. Her younger sibling, Brena.
Their sisterly partnership, once inconceivable for the family-owned bulk transporter, is part of a calculated company transformation that features a young leadership team with fresh perspective, a revitalized tank cleaning operation eager to serve third-party customers again—and an ambitious plan to expand the Illinois-based business founded by two brothers that practically begs for an obvious brand refresh.
“They may have to change the name,” joked Kevin Glendenning, their proud father, who established Glendenning Brothers, Inc., with his younger brother in 1993.
The sisters hope to use their combined academic and outside experience to modernize the tank transportation specialist—which traces its roots to the first tractor Kevin purchased in 1976 to serve his father’s farming business—for customers and drivers, while helping their parents transition from trucking to retirement.
“My goal is growth, but what I’ve figured out is, in this industry, we’re not going to be able to grow simply by buying equipment,” Bailey explained. “You also can’t just buy companies and expect everything to work. It’s a different world than when my dad started. It’s tougher, and good people are harder to find and keep.
“So we’re trying to figure out different ways to do things.”
Chosen by trucking
Kevin, 65, went a different direction years ago. But not necessarily by choice.
The fourth-generation farmer considered going to college. He wanted to be a lawyer. But he put family first and stayed home to work for Glendenning, Inc., then owned by his grandparents, his dad, George, and his uncle, Floyd, tending to 3,000 cattle and the crops that fed them, as he did throughout his youth. “The marker of when we could go to work was when we could keep the clutch pushed in on the 4010 John Deere tractor,” Kevin recalled.
He partnered with older brothers George and Terry to finance the family’s first Class 8 truck, a White Freightliner conventional with a Caterpillar 3406 engine, so they could begin transporting their own grain from farm to market. Then he learned there wasn’t a place for him in the business. Kevin is the third of four boys, and Floyd also has two boys, and they determined the work only supported two brothers from each family. So he bought out George and Terry’s interest in the Freightliner, setting the course for a career in transportation.
“You do what you have to do, whether you like it or not—so that’s what I did,” Kevin said.
Younger brother Doug joined him after high school, and they spent the next several years as owner-operators, first hauling refrigerated LTL freight from Chicago to the West Coast, and then livestock to Midwest markets and feedlots. The brothers decided they needed to grow the business after both married in 1987, and Doug knew a shipper who needed help moving rendered products, like liquid lard, so they seized the opportunity, acquiring their first Heil trailer and devoting themselves to tanks in 1989—the same year Kevin and wife Kim welcomed Bailey.
“We thought it was a better market, and a more niche business that was a better fit for a small carrier like us,” Kevin recalled. “And at the time, both of us were driving ourselves. So we really started from the ground up.”
To focus on growing the business, Kevin traded his truck for a table in 1991. The brothers registered Glendenning Brothers as a C Corp two years later, then expanded to 20-plus trucks over the next decade. Today, the for-hire bulk carrier hauls edible oils and other food-grade chemicals and products for a range of industries, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and pet food, using 12 Freightliner trucks and 25 Polar tank trailers.
The company also has 20 employees, including Bailey, 34, and her sister, Brena Ingersol, 31, director of human resources.
“It’s been a good living,” said Kevin, who now prefers an advisory role. “It’s not an easy living. But I always wanted to make something that carries on. And that’s what I’m excited about—that it is going to continue.
“I know Bailey and Brena will keep it going.”
Unexpected reunion
Bailey also wanted to be a lawyer, and she did go to college, securing a bachelor’s in business from Trinity International, and master’s degrees in business administration (with a focus on management and entrepreneurship) and human resources at DePaul University. But while rushing to complete her bachelor’s in three years, she forgot to secure the required internship. “So I got to the last minute and needed something, and I said, ‘Dad, can I come work for you?’” she said.
He obliged, and Bailey ended up enjoying the experience. “I liked seeing the results of the work I was doing, and having control over its direction,” she recalled. So she joined the company in an HR role in 2010—then spent the next few years proving she isn’t simply “the professor.” Traditionally, women didn’t enter the family business, so the move was “a bit controversial,” Bailey recalled, and her dad wasn’t an easy boss.
“I did everything I could to run her off the first five years,” Kevin admitted. “I was the toughest boss anyone could imagine. I was so hard on her, and I tried to push her out, and I did that because this isn’t the industry I chose.
“I didn’t want that for my daughter—but she did choose it.”
So did Brena, eventually. She followed her mother’s footsteps into nursing after college, but while seeking a change last year realized she could help Bailey run the business, and her parents ease into retirement, and still reserve more time for her young family, including newly adopted baby boy, Roman. Now she fills Bailey’s old HR role—which their mom took on after retiring from nursing—while working remotely from Indianapolis, where husband Chris, a plastic surgeon, is finishing his residency. “Maybe I’m crazy, but here we are,” she laughed.
And their parents couldn’t be happier.
“It’s completely unexpected,” Kevin said. “But they’re intelligent people, and if anyone can survive in this business, it’s them.”
Fresh perspective
Bailey was crowned CEO in 2013, but in a ceremonial capacity. She was the tiebreaker in any disagreement between her dad and uncle, who were co-owners then. She assumed full responsibilities of the position after Doug exited the business in 2015. And now, with Brena on board, she’s supported by her oldest friend—the yang to her yin. “We work well together,” Brena said. “We’ve been like that since we were kids.
“We’re polar-opposite personalities, but we understand each other in a way no one else does.”
Glendenning’s sisters spearhead a new leadership team that is energizing the decades-old trucking operation. James Stark, 36, Bailey’s husband—they met at DePaul and married in 2016—is a corporate attorney with Frame Zeller. He provides legal counsel and assists operations in an unofficial capacity. He helped Kevin merge LCX, which was established for hazardous materials hauling before deregulation, with Glendenning in 2015. They added tank wash manager Mike Ortiz, 36, and shop manager Blake Cohoon, 39, in August.
“We’re very driven, and we’ve got a lot of youth for the first time—other than when my dad first started,” Brena said.
They’re also bringing fresh perspective from their diverse array of backgrounds. Ortiz previously operated a mobile vehicle cleaning business. Cohoon worked in manufacturing at Chrysler. Brena, who holds a master’s in nursing from the University of Cincinnati, still works as a nurse practitioner in a limited capacity at Goodman Campbell. Bailey, a long-time member of National Tank Truck Carriers’ board of directors who chairs the association’s workforce committee, spent a summer as a Congressional intern in Washington D.C., and Stark boasts clients across multiple industries, including transportation, construction, and health care.
Their mission is to incorporate those learnings in a way that advances the business.
“We have a respected name in the industry, and a respected brand, but we have to change with the times,” Brena asserted. “So we’ve talked a lot about, how do we rebrand as a new management team, and move things into 2024?”
One way is to leverage Brena’s medical expertise to improve driver health. Another is to establish a registered tank truck driver apprenticeship with the U.S. Department of Labor—an NTTC effort Bailey leads—that allows tank truck drivers to start hauling interstate loads before they pick a different path. “Hopefully, we push our apprenticeship through … and begin bringing in younger people who can start as drivers, graduate into safety, dispatch, or maintenance, like many NTTC leaders have done, and ultimately lead our companies,” she said.
A clean start
Bailey’s hoping Mike, an entrepreneurial engineer by trade and training, takes their tank wash to the next level.
Glendenning established its cleaning facility soon after opening its doors because no one nearby performed the service. “We started washing trailers just out of need,” Kevin said. He and Doug designed and installed the tank wash, which, after several upgrades, includes an automated spinner machine, 1 million-BTU Lochinvar boiler that maintains 3,000 gallons of hot water from a well system, and 300-gallon tank for non-recirculated soap. A Fulton boiler provides steam, and a commercial-grade fan dries newly cleaned trailers.
The facility pumps wastewater into an 18,000-gallon underground storage tank, then trucks it to treatment facilities in two municipalities.
The system isn’t fancy, Kevin says, but it works—when someone’s operating it.
He struggled to replace two long-time tank cleaning employees after they retired, so Glendenning stopped offering services to third parties, like Indian River Transport, and eventually ceased all cleaning several years ago, except for emergencies—until Mike came along. He stopped by to offer his tractor detailing service, and Kevin was so impressed, he and Bailey contracted him to run their cleaning operation, now billed as Mr. Mike’s Truck Wash. “He’s young and energetic, and he’s a true entrepreneur,” Kevin said.
After repairs and upgrades, Mr. Mike’s opened in December. The two-bay, food-grade cleaning facility now offers interior and exterior truck and trailer cleans, including Kosher washes, six days a week, along with after-hours calls. “I live 2 minutes away and have nothing better to do than make sure this tank wash is successful,” Mike said.
He’s already boosting driver morale by slashing turnaround times. “That makes a huge difference for drivers from a psychological perspective,” Bailey said. “And on the financial side, it’s more cost-effective for us. Outside tank washes are expensive, and the quality is so unreliable.” So is the help, Stark added. A Glendenning driver recently visited a wash rack during normal business hours, and no one was home. “That has to do with the workforce shortage, but it also has to do with the training and dedication of the staff,” Stark insisted.
With Mike on board, diligence no longer is a concern for Glendenning.
“We don’t do a lot of things big commercial washes are doing but I’ll put the quality of the wash up against theirs anytime because it comes down to what the person washing the trailer knows, and how much they care,” Kevin maintained.
Family business
Bailey and Stark learned how the system works by necessity. Kevin caught Covid-19 late during the pandemic, in 2022, and spent 82 days in intensive care, taking his knowledge of the custom-fabricated tank wash with him. “It was a difficult time, but they pushed through many obstacles to keep things running smoothly,” Kevin said.
That near-death experience also accelerated the family’s succession plans.
“It’s been on everybody’s radar since the buyout with my uncle,” Bailey said. “They didn’t do any planning, so it didn’t go well. They had a formal structure, but they didn’t really pay attention to it. Nobody looked at how things were valued, or the metrics, because it never mattered. They just continued on, day after day.”
This time, the family’s documenting every detail, with Stark’s help. Their intention is to transfer ownership of the company to Bailey in a structured, tax-friendly buyout with a phased redemption of shares that allows Kevin and Kim to comfortably retire to their second home in Florida. “Succession and tax planning have to go hand in hand,” Stark advised. They expect to complete the process this year.
“It gives us a lot of comfort,” Kevin affirmed.
So does keeping the business in the family. Generational transfers typically are the most successful transitions in transportation, Stark asserted, helping companies better protect customers, employees, and valuations, compared to selling to a third party. Still, it’s critical for everyone to concur on expectations and timelines early on. “When those conversations aren’t had up front, and agreed to formally, eventually someone comes back unhappy,” Stark said. “Whether the kids think they overpaid, or the parents think the company grew and they should get a taste of the upside growth, and they weren’t paid enough.
“Those are two major reasons for litigation.”
Clerical errors also can complicate concerns, so it’s wise for everyone to have an attorney review documents to account for any competing interests—especially when they’re related, Bailey added. “Even when it’s a friendly transaction, and all parties agree about it, the lawyers can only look at it from one side,” she cautioned.
Fortunately, the family’s on the same page in this affair. “At the end of the day, it makes more sense financially for them and the business to do this,” Bailey concluded. “It’s better for everybody, so it’s been surprisingly easy.”
Future fortification
Growing the business in a soft market won’t be easy. But Bailey always has a plan, Stark observed. “Nothing is left to chance,” he said. “Everything is thought out five years ahead. That doesn’t mean plans don’t change—but there is a plan.” As a liquid bulk carrier, they also operate in “one of the most insulated segments in transportation,” helping shield them amid economic downturns, Stark attested, and Glendenning’s business is built on shipper relationships, not brokered freight, helping preserve rates and margins.
Bailey endeavors to establish a network of 20- to 30-truck terminals in a measured expansion that preserves those relationships. “Any bigger, and we risk losing that close-knit dynamic—and I think we’d lose our identity,” she said. But to achieve that objective, Glendenning will need to boost organic growth with acquisitions, she acknowledged. That’s why Stark says he “can definitely see Glendenning expanding on the buyer’s side.”
They’ll also have to fill the trucks they have—which is no easy task, Brena said.
Glendenning drivers are paid well and receive “unparalleled” health benefits, Stark said, and managers try to find the runs and hours they prefer, but turnover continues to be an issue amid the worsening driver shortage. “What’s hard for us is, as our manufacturing customers adjust their schedules to be better for their workers, it takes flexibility away from us, which presents different challenges,” Bailey said.
Reopening the tank wash should help keep drivers around. Glendenning’s current drivers already are happier. They united to buy a Christmas present for Mike to show their appreciation for tank trailers that always are cleaned properly and ready to tow. Bailey and Mike also plan to expand the facility, adding a driver’s lounge and, eventually, more truck parking; and the services they offer, adding inspections and routine maintenance items in hopes of growing outside business. Mike’s initial goal is to wash 10 trucks and 10 tanks per day.
“We’re excited to offer our services to everyone,” he said.
They’re ideally situated to serve a variety of customers, including protein, dairy, and warehousing companies in the small towns around them, like Rockford and Rochelle, and carriers who want to avoid Chicago’s crowded tank washes. “We’re in a good area because we’re just outside Chicago, and we’re close to I-88, I-90, and I-39,” Kevin said.
With Glendenning’s sisters leading the way, they’re also in good hands.
Their intention is to further their father’s work, and fortify the future for their family business, so they, too, have something to pass on to Roman and Emma, Bailey’s 1-year-old daughter—potentially the third generation of tank truckers. “I have absolute confidence their business will keep doing well and growing,” Stark concluded.
“One, their relationships are solid in the marketplace, and two, they have a core group of drivers who are exceptionally loyal.”
