The people behind Southern Trading Solutions
Most 3PLs start with investors. Ours started in a living room.
We're Trent Ganstine and Michael Barber — lifelong Nashville-area residents, and friends since second grade, 1983. After high school came the first shared job: nights loading trucks at UPS, college classes during the day. Two careers launched the same year — 1999 — and ran in two different directions for more than two decades. In 2022, we brought them under one roof of our own. No investors, no outside money. Just the two of us.
That first roof was Trent's living room.
He built the first kits himself and drove them to the FedEx counter in his truck, until his wife finally drove us out that Christmas to make room for the decorations.
Then came 7,500 square feet.
Then 15,000, grown into 60,000.
Today, Southern Trading Solutions runs 80,000 temperature-controlled square feet — still owner-operated, still the same two guys who started it.
Trent Ganstine — Owner & Operations Partner
Three decades in warehouse operations, starting at fifteen — building fishing lures and picking orders. Every department of a 2.6-million-square-foot distribution center. Warehouse manager of one of the earliest online grocers — hundreds of orders picked, packed, and loaded by night, delivered to doorsteps by day, years before the iPhone existed. Then senior roles across three Middle Tennessee 3PLs — director of operations, operations analyst, business unit manager, president — running operations across multiple states along the way.
Michael Barber — Owner & Client Services Partner
Two decades inside one national promotional-products company: ongoing fulfillment programs for brands you'd recognize, multi-million-dollar inventory contracts, pricing across twenty-plus client programs — and the customer-service and distribution teams behind them. A graduate of the Scarlett Leadership Institute at Belmont University.
The space has changed; the division of labor hasn't.
Michael still takes the first call from every new client.
Trent still runs the warehouse floor.
And we still believe what we've always believed: do good work for good people, and they keep coming back.
The team that came back.
The owners aren't the only long-timers in this building. Two of our kitting leads have more than fifteen years in kitting — including years spent on the client side, inside a brand's own operation. They know what a client expects from a 3PL because they've been the client. Our warehouse lead has worked with Trent across three different companies, going back more than fifteen years. And Tim Burroughs, our account manager, came here the way much of our client list did — the work moved, and he moved with it.
That's the pattern in this building: people who've done this work together before, choosing to do it again under this roof.
Nobody here is a temp.
In this industry, temporary labor is how most warehouses handle a spike — an agency sends whoever's available that morning, and unknown hands touch your product. We don't use staffing agencies. Everyone who works on your inventory was hired by us, trained by us, and is known to us — and when a deadline gets tight, we flex with people we know. Right person, right job, right result.
From the people we work for.
Clients by industry, never by name — same policy as everywhere on this site.
Southern Trading Solutions has been an outstanding 3PL partner. Tim, our account manager, has done an excellent job consistently implementing our needs efficiently and effectively while maintaining great communication. Their entire team is friendly, responsive, and truly team-oriented — whenever we've needed assistance, it's always been easy to quickly connect with the right person. Combined with competitive pricing and overall value, Southern has been a great partner for our organization.
Southern Trading stepped up when we needed space fast. The ability to store and access other services was invaluable for our company. We couldn't ask for a better partner — they do what it takes to make things happen when needed.
You've met the people. The work lives on its own pages: Kitting & Assembly · Warehousing & Storage · Order Fulfillment · FBA Prep
Talk to an owner.
No sales layer here — when you call, you get one of the two people who own the company.
Michael Barber — Owner & Client Services Partner · New clients start here.
Trent Ganstine — Owner & Operations Partner · Operations and active projects.