Origins and early history In the early 1900s, Charles Henry Robinson owned a small wholesale brokerage house that provided produce throughout North Dakota and Minnesota. He partnered with the Nash brothers on April 11, 1905, and became the company's first president.
Nash Finch Company was the leading wholesaler in the region, owning and operating grocery stores. Following Charles Henry Robinson's death in 1909, the Nash Brothers assumed control of the C.H. Robinson Company. C.H. Robinson became the procurement arm for the Nash Finch Company as it expanded in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Texas. In the 1940s, the FTC found Nash Finch Company to have a "price advantage," and under the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, C.H. Robinson Co. was split into two companies. The first, C.H. Robinson Co., was formed by the offices that sold produce to Nash Finch's warehouses, and ownership was retained by C.H. Robinson employees. The second company, C.H. Robinson, Inc., remained owned by Nash Finch. C.H. Robinson and other shippers had previously relied on trains to transport goods. In 1968, the firm entered the regulated truck business as a contract carrier named Meat Packers Express based in Omaha, Nebraska. C.H. Robinson created a contract carrier program, expanded its freight contract operations, and established itself as a middleman sourcing operation for shippable goods. The company's average annual growth, measured in truckloads, more than doubled and C.H. Robinson posted more than $700 million in sale within five years. Forty per cent was generated by truck brokerage, with the remainder of revenue coming from produce sales. Gross revenues for 1997 reached $1.79 billion, while net revenues amounted to $206 million, a 15.1% increase over the previous year. On June 6, 2023, C.H. Robinson Worldwide, Inc. announced that its board of directors had appointed Dave Bozeman as chief executive officer and member of the board, effective June 26, 2023.
Outreach The company's work with nonprofits and other charity and community causes has been acknowledged, including selection as a finalist for the Minnesota Business Magazine 2015 Long-Term Achievement Award for "demonstrating a long-term commitment to positively impacting the state's community of nonprofits or other worthy causes."
Adoption of Artificial Intelligence In recent years, independent reporting and industry analysis have described the company's increased use of
data analytics and
artificial intelligence to support supply chain visibility, pricing, automation, and operational decision-making. Coverage by the Star Tribune has examined how AI is influencing C.H. Robinson's operations and leadership strategy within the logistics industry, while FreightWaves has reported on the company's use of AI-enabled tools to assist with freight pricing, shipment execution, and workflow automation. The Wall Street Journal has also reported on the company's use of machine learning and generative AI to automate routine logistics processes during a prolonged freight market downturn. Additional coverage in Yahoo Finance has cited C.H. Robinson as an example of how artificial intelligence is being adopted across industrial and logistics companies, while industry analysts at Gartner have identified the company as a participant in the market for
real-time transportation visibility and logistics technology platforms. Financial publications such as Barron's have also discussed the company's AI initiatives in the context of broader operational and market trends in the logistics sector. == Acquisitions ==