The year 2025 was a strategic balancing act between business growth, investment, and innovation. At least that’s true for Evans Distribution Systems, but I would argue that many of our customers would agree. In the B2B service world, much of our organizational shifts are directly related to shifts in our customer organizations, like one big pendulum.
These shifts came from different directions—some influenced by government, trade, inflation, geopolitical conflicts, and rapid technological developments. Some positive and some negative—depending on your perspective. At Evans, our guiding light is always in the interest of serving customers at the highest levels by anticipating needs and developing unique solutions.
At the heart of the balancing act were the people who supported us: Our customers, employees, and partners. Throughout 2025, our support network operated on trust, expertise, and flexibility. I am grateful for these relationships—and the individuals behind them—that allowed Evans Distribution Systems to prosper. Here are a few highlights from last year.
One of the most exciting developments is our internal AI initiative. We’ve hired our first part-time developer to assist with data and AI workflow projects, and we’ve developed an internal think tank to drive automation across the organization.
This group meets weekly with the goal of:
- Identifying projects within different areas of our organization that are repetitive, redundant, and easily recreated using AI technology or automated workflows.
- Research new tools to optimize our processes and enhance productivity.
- Discover new applications to advance and leverage existing tools like Power BI, ChatGPT, or n8n.
- Explore integration opportunities with our current systems.
- Find existing templates to uncover insights within our roles, business, industry, and service capabilities.
Members of this group bring unique skillsets including technology, data, development, marketing, and business thought leadership to the table. Projects are prioritized by data accessibility, success rate, and value potential. As new projects are greenlit, other key employees are brought into the mix to provide insight into current activities and to design the ideal outcome.
One project involves transforming meaningful data from multiple software systems to improve daily decision-making. Using Power BI, we are displaying and analyzing our warehousing data more effectively, and we are developing the same dashboard featuring transportation data in Q1. The intention is to roll out adjacent dashboards within every department by the end of 2026.
As new technology develops and AI capabilities grow, so will our project list. From time to time, we will provide updates on our exciting AI automation journey, and we invite you to share your discoveries with us as we travel this innovative frontier together.
Tariffs were a key topic in 2025, and for good reason, as they affect us all. The most challenging aspect related to tariffs was the volatility and unpredictability of them. Most companies can adapt to fixed increases, but the uncertainty surrounding tariffs throughout the year paralyzed that ability to adapt. We all felt it.
In anticipation of tariffs, Evans expanded our Foreign Trade Zone across all multi-customer facilities to tune of 2.3 million square feet. FTZs were designed to support international trade through deferment of duties; either to improve cashflow or buy time until a more favorable duty presented itself. However, a new loophole was introduced to counteract the benefits of FTZs by stabilizing tariff rates upon entry. We were fortunate to speak to Automotive News on the subject a few months ago and we continue to be a thought leader on the subject today.
In response to customer requirements, a few new expansions were made. Our warehousing footprint has increased to 5 million square feet, with the addition of multiple dedicated operations in Metro Detroit. This is exciting growth that truly speaks to our 3PL operational expertise and strengthened partnerships in the Michigan market.
A new customer needed help streamlining their high SKU direct-to-business fulfillment operation. We relish complex projects because they build competencies and diversify our capabilities. This account allowed us to implement a state-of-the-art vertical lift module (VLM) system, designed to systemize inventory to maximum capacity. Not only do VLMs increase efficiency but they also amplify vertical storage capacity and increase ROI for customers. This has spurred us to identify other accounts or facilities that are conducive to automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS). Stay tuned for more.
Our transportation team has fully implemented a new transportation management system across our asset-based and non-asset-based operations this year. It has proved to benefit communication, flexibility, optimization, and customer visibility. We are focused on advancing our drayage capabilities with increased driver capacity, container data visibility, flexibility, and equipment. Our goal is to become the top-rated drayage provider in Southeast Michigan.
As always, we appreciate your support and partnership throughout the year. We believe every challenge has a silver lining. This year is no different, and we continue to adapt and utilize the tools and technologies to advance customer service. Please let us know what this upcoming year brings and how we can support your growth and development in 2026.
Please connect with us at sales@evansdist.com.
Best wishes,
John A. Evans