Our History

The Early Years

Janel Group was established in New York City in 1974 as a full-service company built on delivering the best customer experience in the logistics marketplace. With that focus, Janel quickly established itself as a go-to air and ocean freight forwarder and customs broker. The success led to a Year One expansion into export services and trucking and warehousing.

National Expansion

Based on the strength and success of our New York operation, Janel set about establishing a national network of offices, opening its first branches in Chicago (Midwest Region) and Los Angeles (West Region) in 1979. This successful trio of offices was joined in 1994 by our Atlanta (Southeast Region) office, which took root and grew as well.

Taking a Leap Forward

As the new millennium dawned in 2000, Janel Group took a significant step in our history by becoming a public company.  The stock of our parent company, Janel Corporation, is now listed on the OTC market under the ticker symbol JANL.

A New Chapter

In 2013, the company brought in new leadership and capital to strengthen the core brokerage and forwarding businesses through staff development and IT systems upgrades. Aiding these processes has been the acquisition of Alpha International / President Container Lines in 2014 in the northeast, Liberty International in Providence, RI, in 2015, W.J. Byrnes & Co. in several western states in 2017, Global Trading Resources (Portland, OR), SeaCargo (Long Beach, CA) and Honor Worldwide Logistics (Houston) in 2018. With these companies has come additional revenue, a bench of extraordinary talent, new markets, and greater strength for the entire Janel network.

We’ve continued that growth pace even during the pandemic era by successfully launching our new Miami office in 2020 as well as adding Atlantic Customs Brokers (Connecticut) in 2020 and W.R. Zanes & Company (Gulf Coast) in early 2021.  Most recently, September 2021 saw us almost doubling the size of the company by incorporating the Expedited Freight & Logistics (ELFS) truck brokerage and international forwarding teams based in Houston, TX, with other operating sites in the Gulf Coast and Western states. 

Moving Ahead

Today, our domestic offices are complemented by a wide range of international agents abroad who expand our servicing abilities globally.  With more than 250 dedicated employees across more than two dozen offices nationwide, Janel uses its growing platform to push forward a business development strategy rooted in aggressive organic growth, additional acquisitions, continuous operations improvement, best-in-class global partners, a culture of team success, and an ironclad commitment to serving our customers to the fullest – remaining true to our founding promise and principle..