GTI Transport Acquires Specialized Division of Precision Truck Lines
GTI Transport Solutions has purchased the specialized heavy-haul division of Precision Truck Lines and will move the business to a new location in Brantford, Ontario, where it will continue to operate with the same management and personnel under the name Precision Specialized Inc.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
GTI, based in Montreal, provides open-deck, specialized and over-dimensional freight transportation services in Canada and the United States.
Lafreniere
Richard Lafreniere, CEO of GTI, said the company will invest in growing Precision’s business by expanding into new markets.
“The team at Precision Specialized has demonstrated market-leading know-how in quality of service and engineering of complex project-driven loads,” Lafreniere said in a statement released Feb. 11. “We firmly believe that blending their expertise with the broad footprint of GTI will enable us to drive growth and become the preferred open-deck, heavy-haul transportation company in North America.”
Ed Bernard, a former vice president of Precision’s Specialized Division, will continue to head up the operations as president of Precision Specialized.
GTI is a portfolio company of Novacap Inc., a private equity investment firm with offices in Toronto and Montreal. Novacap has owned a stake in GTI since 2014.
Frederick Perrault, a senior partner at Novacap, said the acquisition is part of a strategic plan to expand GTI’s capabilities and geographic reach.
“Combined with the launch of GTI USA in 2018 and other acquisitions in the pipeline,” he noted, “we are very enthusiastic about the group’s future.”
A representative of Precision Truck Lines also applauded the sale of the specialized division.
“This transaction is a win-win for us,” said Ravi Annand, vice president and chief financial officer at Precision Truck Lines. “It will allow a great division we have built up over the last decade to continue its growth plan and allow Precision Truck Lines to focus on its core activities of truckload and less-than-truckload transborder transportation.”
Founded by former truck driver Vishnu Ramdeen, Precision Truck Lines provides expedited freight transportation and maintains offices in Toronto in Canada and Ontario, Calif., in the U.S.
