Golden firm masters fine art of shipping.

• Author: Taylor, Mike
• Position: ON SMALL BIZ - Occupation overview of Diane Gibson employee of Pak Mail Centers of America Inc. - Occupation overview

Diane Gibson was an executive for Pak Mail Centers of America when she noticed an absence of companies that could pick up, insure and ship large items--not just Christmas gifts or trophies or gold watches.

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So 17 years ago she launched Craters & Freighters, initially specializing in packing and shipping fine-art pieces and antiques. The Golden-based company did so well that after just one year, Gibson started franchising the concept, opening a test-market site in St. Louis in 1991 and soon adding franchises in other major markets.

Packing and shipping fine-art pieces and antiques is a process fraught with obstacles, and that helped Craters & Freighters earn business from the outset.

"They were difficult to pack properly, they were difficult to insure because of such high values, and they were very fragile," Gibson says of the expensive wares. "The carriers didn't want to take them because they knew they were going to tear them up. So there was a real market niche there."

As it turned out, that proven expertise gave the company a leg up when it sought to get into the business of shipping high-tech gear like server racks for data centers and sensitive electronics for IT firms.

"That whole concept of high-value, high-fragility in shipping is what led us into a lot of our high-tech business," Gibson says.

Last year, Craters & Freighters' revenues topped $38 million, placing it No. 9 in this magazine's ranking of the state's Top 100 women-owned companies. The company expects revenues of more than $45 million in 2007, which would represent a nearly twofold increase in less than five years.

A key to this growth was Gibson's launch of a complementary company five years ago, Craters & Freighters Global Logistics. Besides centralizing the shipping communications and billing for large clients making complicated moves, it also feeds business to the 70 or so Craters & Freighters franchisees across the country.

Brad Barenberg, who came aboard five years ago as vice president of national accounts for Craters & Freighters Global Logistics, cites a recent job for an aerospace company to move the O-rings for a space shuttle--"the piece that hooks the rocket booster to the actual shuttle"--from Wisconsin to Cape Canaveral.

"It's 19 feet in diameter, and it's got to ship flat," Barenberg says. "We have to move that through about eight different states. In Connecticut, unless we have a court order, we cannot move anything greater than 16...