A U.S. Army veteran with three deployments overseas, Dowagiac’s Chris Schultz is used to the phrase “shipping out.”

These days, though, it is Schultz who handles the shipping — in this case, of the products from nearly 300 companies across the U.S.

The Dowagiac man took over ownership of Thor Logistics Inc., a franchisee of the national shipping company Unishippers, in late November. Running the business alongside his business partner, Jim Courtwright of Springfield, Illinois, Schultz assists large and small businesses with coordinating product shipments.

With his new role in the company, Schultz is looking to relocate from his current home office into some new digs in town, eyeing possible spaces in hopes of being open by the end of the month, he said.

“Up until this point, I was mainly meeting with people face-to-face, so I did not really need a place to park myself,” he said. “But things are a little bit different now that I have taken over operations as well as business development.”

Schultz is a longtime Dowagiac resident, having moved to the city with his family when he was in the third grade, he said. Shortly before graduating from Dowagiac Union High School in 1998, Schultz enlisted in the U.S. Army.

“I came from a military family,” he said. “I grew up hearing stories from Vietnam from my father. Every man in my family has served, for as far back as I can recall.”

After spending several years on active duty, he transferred to the reserves in 1999, and was deployed overseas to Iraq in 2003. In 2006, Schultz moved to the Dowagiac armory to serve as the mortar section leader, and was deployed again to Iraq in 2008 and to Afghanistan in 2012, he said.

After arriving back from his last stint overseas, Schultz decided to try his hand at sales, working for Absolute Innovations based out of Osceola. He found out about Unishippers while working for the company, noticing an advertisement one day for a contest that was offering a franchise ownership position to veterans, he said.

“The deadline for the contest was the same day I saw the notice,” Schultz said. “I left work as soon as I could, went down to my basement, shot a video for the contest, edited it and sent it in.”

Schultz’s last minute entry was good enough to land him a spot as one of five finalists.

While he did not win, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as his future business partner, Courtwright, approached him with a job offer with Thor shortly thereafter.

Working for several years to help to build up the company’s clientele, Schultz — who has years of logistical experience in both the public and private sector — took over ownership with Courtwright late last year.

“I have always enjoyed logistics,” he said. “It is never ending. You are never bored. There is always something to improve upon. It is an always evolving field. The industry is constantly changing, from month to month and year to year.”

In spite of his new position, Schultz said his added responsibilities will not change how he handles his clients.

“I like to do things face-to-face,” he said. “Instead of listening to [businesses] problems over the phone, I like to stand on their docks, to see what they do on a day-to-day basis, what their products are, how they are packaged, things like that.”

With several area clients, including Dowagiac’s Premier Tool & Die Cast Machining, in his portfolio, Shultz is hoping by expanding his business’ presence locally so he can better help other business owners in his hometown.

“Anytime I can help local businesses to not just grow but to save money in the process, that is ideal to me,” Schultz said.