South Korean Giant CJ Logistics Buys DSC Logistics
South Korea’s CJ Logistics will take majority control of Des Plaines, Ill.-based DSC Logistics in a deal expected to close in the third quarter.
DSC CEO Ann Drake will remain as chairwoman of the DSC advisory board and retain minority ownership while President Ed Bowersox, Chief Financial Officer David Copeland and Chief Customer Officer Kevin Coleman will retain their positions.
Drake
“CJ shares our passion for dynamic supply chain leadership and will provide a global platform for DSC, while DSC will provide a platform of expertise, capabilities and leadership in the U.S.,” said Drake.
The Korean news agency Yonhap reported that CJ Logistics paid $216 million for a 90% stake in DSC.
DSC was founded in Chicago in 1960 as Dry Storage Corp. Its 2017 net revenue of $530 million put it at No. 28 on the Transport Topics Top 50 list of largest logistics companies in North America. It ranks No. 8 on TT’s list of largest dry storage warehousing firms with 23 million square feet of space.
CJ Logistics was formed in 2013 from the merger of CJ Korea Express and CJ GLS. Since then it has acquired firms in China, India, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates and Vietnam. DSC is its first acquisition in the Americas.
CJ Logistics is a subsidiary of CJ Group, a Seoul-based conglomerate with 2017 revenue of more than $25 billion with holdings in food production, entertainment, logistics, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and other industries. CJ Logistics has said it seeks to be ranked as a top-five logistics company worldwide in 2020. Last year delivered more than 1 billion boxes.
CJ Logistics ranks No. 28 on TT’s list of largest ocean freight forwarders with 310,850 ocean containers, and No. 38 on TT’s list of largest airfreight forwarders. The company operates 12 warehouses in the United States.
In Asia CJ Logistics provides land, air and sea logistics services including forwarding, shipping, contract logistics, parcel and express delivery and supply chain management consulting services. In North and South America it services the auto, electronics and consumer packaged goods industries.
CJ Logistics opened in May its multimodal transport Eurasia Bridge Service between Europe and Asia that uses the Trans China Railway. Stations range from Chengdu, China, in the East to Lodz, Poland, Nuremberg, Germany, and Tilburg, Netherlands, in Europe.
