Candlewood Freight Solutions Drives Logistics Growth in Danbury

Victor Nasser bought his first delivery van with a credit card in 2013, uncertain whether he would be able to pay it off before the introductory interest rate expired. "I had one client, a furniture store in Danbury that needed reliable local delivery," Nasser said. "I told myself if I could just keep that one account happy, I'd figure out the rest." Twelve years later, that single van has become Candlewood Freight Solutions, a logistics company operating a fleet of 47 trucks and a 90,000-square-foot warehouse serving clients across western Connecticut.

Nasser, who immigrated to the United States as a teenager and worked as a warehouse loader before starting his own company, says the growth of e-commerce in the region caught many established logistics firms off guard, creating an opening for a smaller, more adaptable operator. "The big carriers were built for pallets going to big-box stores," he said. "Nobody was built for the volume of small packages going straight to somebody's front door. We built ourselves around that instead."

Finding a Niche in Last-Mile Delivery

Candlewood's growth accelerated significantly when Nasser secured a contract with a regional furniture and appliance retailer expanding its online ordering system, requiring last-mile delivery and installation services the retailer could not efficiently manage in-house. That contract became a template for similar partnerships with other mid-sized retailers who needed delivery capacity but could not justify building their own logistics infrastructure.

"Victor understood before most people in this business that last-mile delivery for bulky items was going to be the growth area," said Marisol Feng, Candlewood's operations director. "He built our whole warehouse layout around handling large, awkward items efficiently, which most freight companies weren't set up to do."

Investing in Drivers

Nasser has built much of Candlewood's reputation on driver retention in an industry known for high turnover. The company offers guaranteed weekly hours and a bonus structure tied to on-time delivery rates rather than raw package volume, a system Nasser says reduces the incentive for drivers to rush. "I've been the guy doing the lifting," he said. "I know what it's like when a company only cares about the numbers, not the person driving the truck."

Expanding the Danbury Footprint

Candlewood recently broke ground on a second warehouse facility near Danbury's interstate corridor, aiming to double its storage capacity to accommodate growing contracts with regional retailers. Nasser says the expansion will add roughly 40 jobs, including warehouse staff and additional drivers, and reflects his broader bet that western Connecticut's logistics demand will continue outpacing the region's current infrastructure.

He remains personally involved in day-to-day operations, still occasionally driving routes himself when the company is short-staffed. "People think that's strange for an owner to do," Nasser said. "I think it's strange not to. You lose touch with what your business actually does if you never do it yourself." The credit card that financed his first van, long since paid off, sits framed in his office, a reminder he says keeps him from forgetting how far the company has come.