Forward Air to Buy Central States Trucking
Forward Air Corp. said it will buy Central States Trucking Co. for $95.6 million.
The purchase from Central States Inc. includes the company’s Central States Logistics unit. Founded in 1980, CST provides container and intermodal drayage services, primarily in the Midwest.
Bensenville, Ill.-based CST also provides airport-to-airport linehaul service and dedicated contract and container freight station warehouse services.
CST has a seven-terminal network and about 500 office employees and drivers. Last year, it had unaudited revenue of about $66 million.
CST is “extremely pleased to join the Forward Air team,” CEO Bryan Grane said in a statement. “We feel that combined with Forward Air’s strengths in expedited linehaul and final-mile LTL solutions, our new partnership will allow CST to more quickly achieve our corporate vision to be the market leader in international supply chain trucking and warehousing.”
“For a number of years, we have had the desire to enter the drayage space via purchase of a company with a scalable platform,” Forward Air Chairman and President Bruce Campbell said. “CST not only provides that platform but does so while achieving the high margins and low asset intensity that our shareholders have come to expect from us.”
Forward Air is ranked No. 45 on the Transport Topics Top 100 listing of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers.
