From left, Luke Howarth, Founder & CBDO; Tony Polimeno, Founder & CEO, and Brian Healey, Founder & COO, of Prep Partners in Rochester, NH. Photo by Mark Bolton
Tony Polimeno, Brian Healey and Luke Howarth were friends for more than 30 years before deciding to go into business together.
Within a couple of years of launching Prep Partners Group, the trio were featured on the cover of a magazine that underscores their roots as well as the name of their Rochester warehousing and logistics company.
The two-page spread in Prep, the alumni publication for St. John’s Preparatory School in Danvers, Mass., celebrated the unlikely union of three North Shore high school buddies who had pursued different career paths after graduating.
“We met early on at St. John’s Prep. We were really good friends through high school,” Howarth says during a visit to the company’s 150,000-square-foot warehouse at Granite State Business Park near Skyhaven Airport.
The three friends went to separate colleges but stayed in touch through weddings and other family gatherings. Year later, they all found themselves at a crossroads, itching to do something else, especially Polimeno and Brian Healy, who were in corporate roles.
“We just started on the back of a napkin, and said collectively, ‘How can our three brains and experiences put something together to do for the rest of our careers?’” says Howarth, chief revenue officer. “We had bounced ideas off each other for years in kind of a joking way.”
Polimeno’s expertise was in commercial real estate development; Healey’s was in supply chain management; and Howarth’s was in sales. While their skills overlapped, each would have distinct roles in the new company.
“Tony has managed millions of square feet office space and industrial space. Brian’s background is all in 3PL (third party logistics) distribution fulfillment. And I’ve had a varied career in business development and sales,” Howarth says. “When we started talking about this, I was really working for myself in more of an entrepreneurial fashion.”
The three friends decided to find some land and build a warehouse. They had an agreement to buy the Rochester property in late 2019, but the pandemic slowed down the closing. In January 2021, they started construction after considerable delays.
“We did it through COVID, which was miserable for me,” says Polimeno, the company’s chief executive officer. “We couldn’t get financing. We couldn’t get labor, couldn’t get materials. I’ve been building all my life, and I’ve run into all of those situations, but they’re all singular. During COVID, it all happened at once. We had to finesse our way through it.”
Prep Partners opened for business in June 2022, about six months behind schedule.
Stephen Moses, left, and Luke Howarth of Prep Partners discuss the company’s origins in their 150,000-square-foot warehouse in Rochester. Photo by Mark Bolton
“We got off to a late start, according to our pro forma, but it seems to be working out. This is a completely organic operation here,” Polimeno says. “All of these customers are brand new. We started with zero customers, and I think now we got maybe 25 or 30. So we’re just building one block at a time, and trying to stay afloat while we’re building. It’s a startup mentality. You got to get the customers.”
Third-party logistics revenue nationwide grew at a compound annual growth rate of 4.8% to $101.6 billion in the past five years, with a 6.8% gain in 2024, according to a market research report by IBISWorld.
“The shakiness in the economy has been adding volatility in this industry, leaving many to find more ways to generate revenue, either by upgrading their operations or cutting costs,” the report said. “But, profit has been broadly stable as such decisions, along with a healthy downstream market benefitting from a thriving economy, have been helping this industry recoup its costs.”
The rise of e-commerce has fueled growth as retailers and wholesalers increasingly rely on third-party logistics companies: “Diverting logistics to 3PLs lets them zero in on their core business operations,” IBISWorld said.
Between 60% and 70% of Prep Partners’ customers are based in New Hampshire, including Thompson/Center Arms, a Rochester gunmaker that relaunched in 2024 after a group of investors, including former owner Gregg Ritz, purchased it from Smith & Wesson.
“Fulfillment and warehouse services are a key part of the relaunch for Thompson/Center Arms, and Prep Partners has been a fantastic local partner for us to seamlessly integrate our ecommerce platform with shipping, inventory and warehouse services,” Ritz says via a statement emailed to NH Business Review.
The biggest customer is Stonewall Kitchen, the York, Maine-based company that sells specialty foods, kitchen gadgets, home décor and other products. Stonewall operates a distribution center in Dover.
“They were our first customer. Serendipitously, we got introduced to them as we were looking for warehouse space,” Howarth says. “As we started to build this building, we reengaged with them. We actually started work for them prior to even having this building open.”
Prep Partners’ customers include Stonewall Kitchen, which contracts with the company to assemble gift baskets of the company’s specialty foods and kitchen products. Photo by Mark Bolton
One of Prep Partners’ key services is “hand assembly and kitting work.” For Stonewall Kitchen, that means assembling gift baskets that collect a variety of the company’s products. The warehouse company’s access to labor was a primary selling point.
“They didn’t want to do it in-house. They wanted to be able to outsource that component,” Howarth says.
The company partners with a local day labor provider to hire the workers it needs for such projects. What happens to products once they arrive at the warehouse depends on the needs of the particular customer.
“We take manufactured finished goods, we warehouse them, we store them sometimes. Many times, we put them together, or we combine them and then we’re the distribution arm,” Howarth says.
Pallets of goods in the warehouse might be destined for a big box retailer like BJ’s or Costco. Other products require more steps.
“One of our core businesses is direct-to-consumer distribution. A lot of our customers sell direct to consumers, both online as well as in-store,” he says.
Prep Partners employs less than 10 full-time staff and from 50 to 150 temporary workers, depending on what’s in the warehouse. Healy, who designed the warehouse so that it was optimal for logistics, oversees the operations.
“The workforce, I’ve been working with them for over 30 years. They’re all from the industry, and they’ve all worked in the industry, so it’s not as though you’re dealing with new people,” says Healey, president and chief operating officer. “They’ve all worked with me and my team and our team for a long time. They understand the process and what’s needed of them.”
Healey considers them integral to the company’s success.
“People have their strengths and weaknesses, and they’re put into positions where they can succeed,” he says. “We watch their families grow, which is part of why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s not just for the owners here to sit back. It’s for everybody to have growth and watch their families grow.”
The company’s warehouse management system processes orders arriving from individuals, websites and phones. Workers find the products in the warehouse, bag or box it and load them onto trucks at docking stations.
“We don’t own trucks. We don’t own those types of assets. We own the building. We own the land, and we’re the ones that take that order and make sure that it gets to the customer,” Howarth says.
Prep Partners’ customers include some of their neighbors at Granite State Business Park, such as Safran Aerospace Composites, which manufactures aircraft equipment, and Nextphase Medical Devices, which designs and builds products for original equipment manufacturers and startups.
Nextphase just needs room for temporary storage.
“We warehouse for them, components that they have that they’re manufacturing over there, but they don’t have the warehouse space for it,” Howarth says. “They store it here, and when they need it, we ship it back to them.”
While local customers make up about two-thirds of their base, Prep Partners has been pursuing clients outside the region. One of their customers is a California company that produces wine accessories, such as bags and caps for wine bottles.
“We can service companies anywhere from Europe and North America. We have a lot of conversations with companies from Europe that want to bring their products to the U.S.,” Howarth says. “We’re also, relatively speaking, close to Canada. We’re good for customers that want to get into the Canadian market, too, because they can warehouse here and ship up to Canada in a relatively cost-efficient way.”
Prep Partners counts three clients who were recently honored by Forbes in a “30 Under 30” feature focusing on companies in the food and drink industry.
One of the companies, Drink Wholesome, was founded in 2020 by Gilford, NH, resident Jack Schrupp in 2020 while he worked as a high school teacher and coach, Forbes reported. Schrupp was inspired to create an alternative protein powder product that wouldn’t cause the bloating he suffered when he drank protein shakes daily as a Division 1 college ski racer.
During a tour of Prep Partners, packages of Drink Wholesome product could be seen on the warehouse floor, ready for shipment.
“It’s nice to be able to mentor,” said Stephen Moses, director of business development. “For us sitting in the background, it’s very exciting to watch some of these young entrepreneurs grow and their companies grow. We’re supporting that.”
Launching a company with your friends might not be the best recipe for success for both the business and the relationships, but for Prep Partners, it’s one that appears to be working thus far.
“We have some tough calls, but we wake up the next morning, and we’re right back to where we started again. And that’s OK,” Howarth says. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The No. 1 key component to all this has been trust. That’s why we did this.”
Polimeno concurs.
“If you don’t trust the people you’re working with, then you might as well forget it, you know? But I trust these guys, and that’s the biggest part.”
