Greatwide to Launch Rebranding

This story appears in the March 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.

One year after emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, Greatwide Logistics Services is rolling out a major marketing effort to reassure existing customers and bring in new shippers, particularly medium-size firms.

In an interview with Transport Topics earlier this month, a leading executive for the Dallas-based firm said Greatwide is well-capitalized, cash-flow positive, eager to diversify its customer base away from just the largest shippers and now managed as a single business with a broad menu of transportation services rather than a holding company with four operating companies.

“I think some people are wondering what happened to us, so we’re marketing our re-launch,” said Vincent Gulisano, Greatwide’s chief customer officer.

Since its start in 1967 as Refrigerated Transport Inc., Greatwide has worked mainly with larger shippers in the refrigerated sector. Gulisano said the company wants to increase its base and thinks it can do so profitably.

“It’s good to have very big customers, but not only very big customers,” he said, adding that he suspects the margins in working for midsize shippers could be better than from the largest customers.

Greatwide ranks No. 23 on the Transport Topics 100 list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers and it operates in four areas: dedicated contract carriage, freight brokerage, truckload transportation management and warehousing/distribution logistics.

The company used to send as many as four salespeople to a given client, one from each division, Gulisano said, but from now on each customer will deal with just one sales representative selling all four lines of Greatwide services.

“We’ve cross-trained our sales staff and now have a better end product,” he said, adding that last year the company had revenue of almost $1 billion.

After starting as RTI, the company became known as Transport Industries Holdings. Private equity firm Fenway Partners bought TIH in 2000 and, after four major acquisitions, changed the name of the rolled up firm

to Greatwide.

Fenway sold its majority interest to two other private equity firms in December 2006. Investcorp and Hicks Holdings saddled Greatwide with a lot of debt as part of their acquisition, Gulisano said, and that led to the company’s October 2008 bankruptcy filing.

By February 2009, Greatwide emerged and was owned by its former debt holders, Centerbridge Capital Partners and the D.E. Shaw Group. Leo Suggs, the former

chairman and CEO of less-than-truckload carrier Overnite Transportation, became chairman of the board. Suggs later was named chief executive officer. The company’s chief operating officer is John Simone.

Greatwide is probably headed for an initial public offering at some point, Gulisano said, but he could not attach a date to the event.

“We’re in a very nice position now, and we’re cash-flow positive,” he said, adding that the company’s debt is about $75 million, down from $570 million at the time of the bankruptcy filing.

The company’s most recent acquisition was in November, when Greatwide bought the dedicated contract carriage operations of YRC Worldwide Inc.’s logistics divi-

sion. Gulisano said that purchase makes up about 12% to 15% of Greatwide’s current dedicated operations and gives the company access to steel industry shippers.