UP redesigns Marketing and Sales organization to better meet customer needs

Written by Maggie Lancaster, assistant editor
image description

In effort to evolve with its customer needs, Union Pacific announced plans to redesign its Marketing and Sales organization. The Class 1 plans to consolidate six major business units into four and four customer service center subsidiaries into one.

The four updated business units will be Agricultural Products, Energy, Industrial and Premium.

The new Agricultural Products team will be led by Brad Thrasher and will include all of the markets previously under the Agricultural Products business unit, adding fertilizer.

Energy will be led by Linda Brandl and will include the previous Coal business team, in addition to frac sand, LPG and petroleum and wind markets.

Industrial will be led by Kenny Rocker and will include markets that comprised the previous Industrial Products business unit, excluding frac sand and wind, and adding industrial chemicals, plastics and soda ash markets from the former Chemicals business unit.

Premium will be led by Jason Hess and will include all the markets previously served by the company’s Intermodal and Automotive business units.

“These changes more closely align our team structure around the markets we serve, giving us a focused opportunity to provide exceptional transportation products to our customers,” said Beth Whited, executive vice president and chief marketing officer.

In addition to the new business unit structure, Union Pacific is changing the name of the National Customer Service Center to Customer Care and Support to more closely align with the core focus of that team, which will be led by Kari Kirchhoefer.

“We continue to look for ways to improve the customer experience we provide, and the Customer Care and Support team plays an integral role in that mission,” Whited said.

Union Pacific is also expanding its Economic and Industrial Development team to enhance the work done with customers and local economic development teams to add additional transportation options for customers not served directly by rail.

Effective Nov. 1, Union Pacific Railroad will merge four subsidiaries — Union Pacific Distribution Services (UPDS) Streamline, ShipCarsNow and Insight Network Logistics (INL) into a single, wholly owned subsidiary: Loup Logistics Company, which will be led by Shawntell Kroese.

Loup will combine the respective strengths of UPDS, Streamline, ShipCarsNow and INL to provide innovative transportation and logistics services that help connect shippers to rail.

“As a consolidated logistics company, Loup will be better able to support long-term growth for our customers and Union Pacific,” Whited said. “Merging the subsidiaries yields a company with a more robust portfolio of shipping and logistics services and an employee base with a greater breadth of expertise, both of which help us better serve our customers.”

Loup will be located at the Union Pacific Railroad headquarters in Omaha.

Tags: