A love of trucks and Western New York
As a kid, Robert Rich III loved to play with trucks. Today he runs ROAR Logistics, the wholly owned trucking subsidiary of Rich Products Corp. He talked about lessons learned from his entrepreneurial grandfather and father, and why he loves Western New York.
How did you get into trucking? I told my father that I wanted to get into the corporate world. So with minimal business experience, I moved to Rich’s logistics department in 1992, doing production scheduling for a couple of our plants. I always was into trucks as a kid. And one day, my father wanted me to go to our trucking company in Tonawanda, which was having some challenges. But he told me to get a business degree, so I attended the Canisius College Wehle School of Business from 1993 to 1995.
How influential has your family been in shaping your career? Even to this day, my father is influential. When you’re working in the family business with your father, your expectation is that we’re going to be hand in hand on building this business. The truth is that’s not the way it is. It’s not a bad thing. You’re just not walking on that path and talking every day about it. He’s an amazing person; he and my grandfather built an amazing company.
What’s some advice he gave you? To keep doing what I’m doing and rely on the people I hire. If they are good, and I trust them, then I have the greatest resource.
The movie “The Natural” was filmed in Buffalo and you had a part as Robert Redford’s son. What was that like? I thought it was crazy when my father bought the Buffalo Bisons (laughs). He used to get mad at me when I’d tell him that. I thought it was crazy until I was cast to play Robert Redford’s son, then I was sort of happy that we had a baseball team. Here I was, in a movie. Then I said ‘Wow. Dad’s a pretty smart guy.’