Our History

Our history is the foundation for everything we do

Commonwealth was founded by Brian W. Collins and James E. Lassiter in November of 1985. The original warehouse operation was located in a small 25,000 SF multi-tenant facility in the Tri-County area of Cincinnati, Ohio. Brian’s former employer of ten years, Procter & Gamble, quickly became a key client who gave the company many warehousing and fulfillment opportunities. Using his knowledge and experience with Procter & Gamble, the business grew rapidly.

By 1991, Commonwealth was being recognized by Inc magazine as one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the nation. Likewise, The Business Courier and Ernst & Young awarded the company the Crescendo award for being one of the 50 fastest growing companies in the Greater Cincinnati region. 

In 1992 Brian Collins bought out his partner to become sole owner of the company. After the purchase Procter & Gamble continued to drive the company’s growth. P&G awarded Commonwealth a contract to manage a dedicated warehouse to support a paper plant in Greenville, NC. Soon after, Commonwealth was selected to run a similar site in Oxnard, CA. We had essentially become a trusted, “go-to” type of logistics partner for them.

Commonwealth began marketing their contract warehousing business model with great success resulting in contracts with companies such as Pepsi Cola North America (240,000 SF), Qualis Automotive (200,000 SF), and The Nature Company (50,000 SF). The company eventually operated warehousing locations in OH, KY, NC, GA, and CA.

Brian Collins assumed the role of Chairman of the Board after leading Commonwealth for more than 27 years in January of 2012. His son, Brent Collins, took office as acting President & CEO that same month after serving as the company's sales manager for the previous six years. Brian continues to be active within the company serving as mentor, adviser, and voting member of the Board of Directors. 

Today, Commonwealth operates over 1,000,000 SF of public multi-tenant and dedicated contract warehousing facilities in Greater Cincinnati. We remain a non-union, family owned and operated company focused on providing the best possible warehousing and distribution services primarily to the paper & packaging, consumer packaged goods (CGP), chemical, and industrial sectors.