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Master's Transportation chief executive officer, John Goodbrake. Photo credit: Will Crow.
Posted September 30, 2025
"From an employee's standpoint, you should have a good career, be safe, well compensated, and have a great growth path as well. That's a big part of 'moving people forward.' Being able to live out that dream, I thank the Lord for that."
Master’s Transportation Inc. recently opened the doors to its new $72 million headquarters in Kansas City. Thanks to the new campus, the company has been able to consolidate its offices in the metro into one location. New features include a 252,000-square-foot production floor, a modernized office space, increased fleet parking, and a 32,000-square-foot service and refurbishment building. Ingram’s Magazine spoke with Master’s Transportation CEO John Goodbrake to talk about the new headquarters and the opportunities it presents for the company.
Q: What is the goal for the $72 million facility and the company’s decision to consolidate its operations?
A: We were in five locations in South Kansas City and Belton, so it kind of grew ugly just because that’s the way it goes. Then, getting everybody together is super; your efficiencies improve, your people get closer, and the culture gets defended a little bit differently. So that’s super important for us. We built it to facilitate growth and expansion. I mean, you can see we’re starting to fill it up, but we can now even double pretty easily without building being their constraint.
Q: What duties did those five locations have?
A: We had a call center in Kansas City as well as a sales and marketing office. We also had one refurb shop on North Scott and Belton, and our main office was on 71 Highway. And then we had another office and a couple of parking lots. All those operations will now work out of the new campus.
Q: Has the process of onboarding all your staff to a new space been an undertaking?
A: It has because you’ve got a good culture among the staff, and then you’re going to effectively double the workforce here, which can dilute a good culture. However, it could also add to it if you get the right people. That’s what we’re looking for, just a good working space where we can give an opportunity and build a great product.
Q: Where does Master’s workforce currently stand and how will it continue to grow?
A: We are right around 250 employees currently, and we’re hiring now. We’ve hired over 100 people in the last year. We’re in the middle of that phase, trying to get to the next. One line is getting full up while another needs more people, and then there are two more lines to fill after those. There’s a lot of room for growth ultimately. Master’s motto is ‘moving people forward’. That’s both external with our customers and internal with the employees. How do you start in one department and then grow as your career grows here at Master’s is one question we always consider with our people.
Q: Does the new campus allow for upgrades to the company’s fleet? What can we expect?
A: One hundred percent. Right now, we lease and rent about 2,000 vehicles within our fleet, and the facility adds upgrades to them. The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter lines have been added. Another thing to consider is that in our industry, around 60% of our market is in municipal; that’s city, state, airport and government. From coast to coast, we have different locations that can bid on those sectors, allowing us to bid more effectively in all the states we’re in. The cool thing is we distribute everywhere in the United States, but we build here in Kansas City, so all of those people have to come here, take a look at our product, and we’ll sell out of here.
Q: Last year, Master’s experienced a nearly 150% increase in year-over-year gross revenue. Is this new facility a catalyst for a bigger growth initiative going forward, and where would you like to start?
A: Yes, this facility will let us expand significantly. Our target is to double that revenue number in a reasonable two- to three-year timeframe. Our factory is built and ready to grow with capacity. Some of the fun stuff would be as we build more of our Mercedes Sprinters, those are going to be made available for rentals. While we don’t provide the driver, you could rent one in KC, Denver or Dallas, or one of our other offices and easily take your family for a trip.
Q: As a leading Kansas City-based company, what has the journey been like to get Master’s to this point
A: This is an exciting all-in for us. Master’s Transportation started right over here in Grandview 25 years ago with just me and one other person. A 25-year growth to get to the numbers we’re talking about is hard to comprehend in a lot of ways. Then, to be able to grow that even further is incredible. The number of people who get to participate is fun, and the customers we get to help are a lot of fun too. From a customer’s perspective, you should be more efficient, more successful, and more profitable working with Master’s. That’s our goal. From an employee’s standpoint, you should have a good career, be safe, well compensated, and have a great growth path as well. That’s a big part of ‘moving people forward.’ Being able to live out that dream, I thank the Lord for that.
Q: If you had to choose one new feature from the campus, what would be your favorite?
A: The new geothermal HVAC system.
