Transportation Firm To Bring 800 Jobs To Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A Chicago-based transportation logistics company has announced plans to double its workforce in the city, after recently acquiring a Skokie-based operation.
Echo Global Logistics CEO Douglas Waggoner said his transportation and technology company is absorbing a firm it acquired. It will consolidate the operations next summer at a new headquarters in River North, where Echo's existing offices are located.
"We are locating 550 employees from Command Transportation – presently located in Skokie, Illinois. We're bringing them in to the city of Chicago. We're going to co-locate them with the Echo employees," he said.
Echo already employs about 800 people at its headquarters, mostly young adults. Waggoner said he plans to add up to 300 more workers.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel welcomed the move.
"This is a vote, not only in the sense of your future, but the announcement you're going to double the size from 800 to 1600; it's a vote also on the future of the city of Chicago," he said.
Echo is only 10 years old.
"We started with 10 employees at a borrowed conference room, started writing the original technology to create this company. If you fast forward 10 years, 20 acquisitions later, a lot of expansion and growth, we have 30 offices around the country," Waggoner said.
Echo plans to establish a new single office location in River North for all 1,600 employees it expects to work at the headquarters.