Are you running a company that’s been around for decades and each morning on the way to work you’re bracing for the same ol’, same ol’? It doesn’t have to be that way. Ozburn-Hessey Logistics is proving that.

In 2001, the year of the warehouse operator’s 50th anniversary, its owners struck a deal to merge with a company formed by a New York investment firm that wanted to consolidate the fragmented logistics industry. What had been a nicely growing, closely held Nashville business became overnight an aggressive acquirer, armed with deep financial pockets and poised to create a national network of distribution centers.

Four years later, the results of this bold move are clear. Ozburn-Hessey is now the largest privately owned logistics company in the nation, has a clean balance sheet and generates four times as much revenue. Given the company’s current mass and the ownership stake of a large institutional investor, one can imagine that phrases like “initial public offering” and “strategic sale” would be bandied about in board meetings.

“When you operate in a highly fragmented market, where the largest player has a 5% market share, people are looking at you and you are looking at them,” CEO Scott McWilliams says. “We’ve had inquiries from time to time from various parties, public and private, but we’ve never really commented on them.”

Ozburn-Hessey reached this point after being reenergized by its August 2001 merger with ProChannel Distribution Partners, DLJ Real Estate Capital’s platform to amass small logistics businesses across the country. The company hired aggressive, young talent to work with seasoned hands, and in short order acquired DTI of Atlanta, Sterling Logistics of Chicago and Lanter Logistics of Illinois, while simultaneously opening transportation hubs in California, Texas and Florida. Ozburn-Hessey’s distribution-center space has grown from 3.7 million square feet to 18 million square feet, its employee count has shot from 800 people nationwide to roughly 2,600, and company revenue increased from just above $100 million in 2001 to $395 million last year. BMW, Red Bull and Starbucks adorn OHL’s client roster.

While it’s prudent for McWilliams to keep his future plans close to the vest, experts say he has built the company into an attractive acquisition target. “What any buyer would look for is how specialized is their business model and how well-protected is it,” says Robert W. Baird analyst Jon Langenfeld. “My understanding is that they’ve done this right, and even better, they focus on specific industry verticals like pharmaceuticals and health care, where they can provide value-added.”

Ozburn-Hessey does fit that mold. While declining to comment on profit figures, McWilliams says his company has focused on acquisitions that add new skills to the operation and supplement its geographic coverage across the United States. With the most recent, and largest-to-date acquisition of Lanter, the company added a well-performing company with which it shared only one client. “That allowed us numerous cross-selling opportunities,” McWilliams says. On top of that, Ozburn-Hessey has avoided taking on too much debt by buying one company at a time and has shunned top-level management churn for the sake of operational stability.

This is the way a seemingly mature, staid business becomes enlivened. Ozburn-Hessey is showing that being old in the corporate life cycle doesn’t mean you have to be boring.