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FedEx history
FedEx company history timeline
The company was founded by Frederick Wallace Smith on June 18, 1971 and is headquartered in Memphis, TN.“
After finishing his military stint in August 1971, Smith bought the interest in Arkansas Aviation Sales, located in Little Rock, Arkansas.
FedEx initially started as a federal express corporation was established in 1971 in America by Frederick W. Smith.
In 1971, Frederick W. Smith raised $91 million in venture capital.
Federal Express official operations started on April 17, 1973, with 389 team members.
Operations at Memphis International Airport in Tennessee were established in 1973.
1973: Company begins its operations with overnight shipping to 25 cities in the United States.
FedEx added to these start-up costs by beginning expensive advertising and direct-mail campaigns in 1975.
The company lost $29 million in its first 26 months of operation: in 1975 alone it gained $43.5 million in sales against an $11.5 million loss.
FedEx did not earn profit up to 1975 but it became successful to build its image in the market as fast courier service provider.
In 1977 company profits hit $8 million on sales of $110 million.
In 1977, the firm benefited from a strike by employees of rival UPS and the bankruptcy of another competitor, REA Express.
Airline Deregulation Fueling Growth: 1977
1978: Federal Express is first listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Profits for 1979 were $21.4 million on sales of $258.5 million.
In 1979, FedEx began using a centralized computer system known as COSMOS to track packages, routes, weather, vehicles, and employees.
By late 1980 FedEx was well established and growing at about 40 percent a year.
In 1980 Courier-Paks&mdash-velopes, boxes, or tubes used for important documents, photographs, blueprints, and other items--cost the consumer $17 but guaranteed overnight delivery.
By mid-1980 the company had eight $24 million DC-10s on order or option from Continental Airlines, each capable of carrying 100,000 pounds of small packages.
In mid-1981 FedEx announced a new product that would bring it into direct competition with the United States Postal Service (USPS) for the first time: the overnight letter.
By 1981 Federal Express had the largest sales of any United States air freight company, unseating competitors like Emery, Airborne Freight, and Purolator Courier, which had gone into business about two decades earlier.
FedEx expanded its business line in 1981, adding the overnight delivery of letters and documents.
Founded in 1982, it served most states and also the Caribbean islands, Guam, and Central and South America through partnerships with other companies.
In the year 1983, it reported $1 billion in revenue, making it as the first company in American business history to reach that financial hallmark inside 10 years of startup without mergers or acquisitions.
According to a November 1997 article in Fortune, FedEx had been engaged in e-commerce since the 1970s with its COSMOS and DADS systems. Its PC-based automated shipping system, known as FedEx PowerShip, had first been implemented in 1984.
In 1994, Federal Express shortened its name to "FedEx" for marketing purposes, officially adopting a nickname that had been used for years. It expanded to Europe and Asia in 1984.
Revenue reached $2 billion in 1985.
ZapMail was still losing money in 1986 when FedEx abandoned the system, taking a $340 million charge against earnings.
Federal Express also launched a new unit, called Business Logistics Services, which offered transportation and operations management to other businesses. As a result, Federal Express discontinued it in 1986.
Revenue for 1987 was $3.2 billion, while rival UPS collected about $1.7 billion from overnight delivery.
Acquisitions in 1987 included Cansica and Island Courier Companies.
By 1988 FedEx, with 54,000 employees, was providing service to about 90 countries and claimed to ship about 50 percent of United States overnight packages.
In 1988 Tiger had 22 747s, 11 727s, and six DC-8s; 6,500 employees; and revenue of $1.4 billion.
In 1988, the company for the first time initiated direct-scheduled cargo service to Japan.
In 1988, it acquired one of its major competitors, Flying Tiger Line, creating the largest full-service cargo airline in the world.
The firm added to its international holdings in 1988, with the purchase of Italy's SAMIMA and three freight carriers based in Japan.
In its quest to improve quality, the company introduced Service Quality Indicator (SQI) in 1988.
By 1989, sales reached more than $4 billion per year.
1989: Company buys Tiger International, Inc. to greatly expand its international business.
In April 1990 FedEx raised its domestic prices, ending the seven-year price war.
The Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for service companies was bestowed up Federal Express in 1990.
Such fears proved unfounded, although Tiger’s on-time record temporarily fell to 80 percent after the takeover, climbing to 96 percent by early 1990.
In May of 1992, Federal Express shuttered its domestic operations in Italy, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, focusing instead on shipping freight to and from Europe, rather than from one destination to another within the nation.
In 1992, FedEx pilots voted to join the Air Line Pilots Association.
Express packages delivered daily averaged 1.4 million in 1993.
Trimble, Vance H., Overnight Success: Federal Express and Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator, New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1993.
The FedEx logo is a wordmark designed in 1994 by Lindon Leader of Landor Associates, of San Francisco.
In 1994, FedEx launched its Web site, which allowed clients to track package shipments online.
In 1994, Federal Express changed its name to FedEx since the shortened nickname had become so popular; most customers even used it as a verb.
They became the company's only unionized workers, and in 1994 they asked for pay raises and improved benefits.
To compete with the same-day delivery and early morning delivery services offered by UPS, FedEx began offering similar services for both packages and letters in 1995.
A Latin America and Caribbean division was created in 1995 to integrate services within the world's second-fastest growing economic region.
1995: Latin American and Caribbean division is started; company begins its AsiaOne program through a new hub at Subic Bay, Philippines.
The firm also began making deliveries to eight countries located in the former USSR. In early 1996, a blizzard took a $20 million toll on FedEx.
Unfortunately, the company's plans were confounded by the Japanese government, which limited FedEx's flying rights from Japan to other Asian countries in mid-1996, after a series of talks between the United States and Japan failed to yield a compromise.
On October 2, 1997, FedEx reorganized as a holding company, FDX Corporation, a Delaware corporation.
FedEx began offering e-business tools related to FedEx shipping and tracking processes in 1997.
The new holding company began operations in January 1998, with the acquisition of Caliber System Inc. by Federal Express.
In 2000, the company introduced FedEx Home Delivery, a new ground delivery service to bring packages from businesses to homes. It also played a larger role in ground shipping, after its 1998 purchase of Caliber System, a trucking company.
Hoping to compete with UPS and its leading domestic ground delivery service, FedEx paid $2.4 billion for Caliber System, a trucking company with a fleet of 13,500 trucks, in January of 1999.
1999: opens first European hub at Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport and a Miami office to serve Latin America.
In January 2000, FDX Corporation changed its name to FedEx Corporation and re-branded all of its subsidiaries.
In February 2000, FedEx acquired Tower Group International, an international logistics company.
Founded in February 2000, this fifth subsidiary employed about 1,600 persons.
According to a June 2000 article in B to B, the new venture faced many challenges. "For starters, FedEx is late to the party.
Also in 2000, in an alliance with Amazon.com, FedEx agreed to deliver 250,000 copies of a new Harry Potter release to residential customers.
In 2000 its 17,000 employees brought in annual sales of $1.43 billion.
In 2000, the company introduced FedEx Home Delivery, a new ground delivery service to bring packages from businesses to homes.
The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C., kept FedEx's planes on the ground for two days, so its growing fleet of trucks played a huge role in keeping packages moving.
In 2001, FedEx sealed a $9 billion deal with the USPS to transport all of the post office's overnight and express deliveries.
In 2001 FedEx worked to gain approval to create a new hub at the Piedmont Triad International (PTI) Airport near Greensboro, North Carolina.
A Teamsters spokesman told the National Journal in 2001, "FedEx has spent tens of millions of dollars fighting unions, rather than spending tens of millions of dollars to help their workers."
FedEx also continued working on the expansion of its home delivery network, which it expected to complete by 2003.
FedEx Corp. acquired privately held Kinko's, Inc. in February 2004 and re-branded it FedEx Kinko's.
In June 2008, FedEx announced that they would be dropping the Kinko's name from their ship centers; FedEx Kinko's would now be called FedEx Office.
The largest Less than truckload carrier in the United States, with $4.5 billion in revenue for 2008.
On January 14, 2013, FedEx named Henry Maier CEO and President of FedEx Ground, to take effect after David Rebholz retired on May 31, 2013.
The firm was named by Fortune magazine as one of the top 100 companies to work for in 2013, citing the company's choice to downsize with voluntary buyouts rather than involuntary layoffs.
In April 2015, FedEx acquired their rival firm TNT Express for €4.4 billion ($4.8 billion; £3.2 billion) as it looked to expand their operations in Europe.
Through 2015 the international express air cargo market was predicted to grow nearly 18 percent per year; FedEx was expected to reap a major portion of that growth as it saw its foreign operations increasing by as much as 25 percent per year.
However, in August 2016, FedEx announced that all operating units will adopt the purple and orange color logo over the next five years (the same as the original FedEx logo, and later used by FedEx Express).
In September 2018, FedEx expanded FedEx Ground United States operations to six days per week due to the rise in demand for e-commerce.
FedEx was criticized for its partnership with the National Rifle Association, which it terminated in 2018 under pressure from activists.
Amazon accounted for 1.3 percent of 2018 revenues.
In May 2019, FedEx announced the expansion of FedEx Ground United States operations to seven days per week during the holiday peak season.
In June 2019, FedEx announced they would not be renewing their $850 million contract with Amazon for the company's United States domestic express delivery business.
In August 2019, FedEx announced the termination of ground deliveries for Amazon as well.
The service will continue year-round beginning in January 2020 for the majority of the United States population.
FedEx's shares traded at over $273 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$73 billion in December 2020.
In December 2020, FedEx acquired ShopRunner, an e-commerce platform.
"FedEx Corporation ." International Directory of Company Histories. . Retrieved June 22, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/fedex-corporation-0
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FedEx may also be known as or be related to FedEx, FedEx Corporation, FedEx Kinkos, Inc., Federal Express Corporation FDX Corporation, Fedex Corporation, Fedex Express, Federal Express Corporation, fedex national ltl and FedEx Office.