CRST Buys Gardner Trucking in its Largest Acquisition
CRST International Inc. announced it has acquired California-based Gardner Trucking Inc., the buyer’s largest acquisition, to take a step closer toward its goal of becoming a $2 billion annual revenue company within two years.
With annual revenue of about $400 million, Gardner, which is based in Ontario, California, is the fifth acquisition by CRST in the past five years. Terms weren’t disclosed.
CRST said Gardner is “considered the largest truckload carrier based in California and a leading provider of specialized regional truckload services, logistics, drayage and warehouse services for bulk and commodity end-to-end markets.”
Customers include the paper, packaging, food and beverage businesses as well as makers of metal and plastic containers. Gardner runs 2,400 trucks and has 500 nondriving employees, using offices in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona and Texas.
“Gardner will allow CRST to enter the warehousing, drayage and regional van transportation segments through Gardner’s expanded customer base,” CRST CEO Dave Rusch said. “The acquisition of Gardner Trucking further complements CRST’s service offerings through Gardner’s expertise in shorthaul, local markets, as well as drayage and warehousing. We are always in search of adding companies to our portfolio that offer services which allow us to expand our capabilities for our customers.”
CRST, which is based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, ranks No. 24 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers. The acquisition of Gardner increases CRST’s revenue by more than 30% from last year’s $1.3 billion.
Tom Lanting, previous owner and president of Gardner Trucking, will continue as president of the company founded by his family in 1989.
“The Gardner team looks forward to joining the growing CRST family of companies. With the Gardner brand and its specialized service offerings, we look forward to offering our customers a wider range of services in more locations,” Lanting said.
Its previous acquisitions since 2011 include Specialized Transportation Inc., North American Van Lines’ specialized division, BESL Transfer Co. and Pegasus Transportation.
