TFI Buys Quebec-Based Truckload Carrier in Fourth 2024 Deal
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TFI International acquired Quebec-based specialized truckload carrier Transport MJ Lavoie for an undisclosed sum, its fourth purchase so far in 2024, the Montreal-based carrier said in a LinkedIn post.
St-Remi, Quebec-based MJ Lavoie, which was founded in 1992, specializes in hauling truckloads of compostable and recyclable materials, along with residential waste, TFI said in the May 6 post.
That includes metal, moss, dead leaves, residential waste and wood as well as wood chips.
The company runs more than 80 53-foot trailers as well as a fleet of 30 trucks, according to the company’s website. Those operations are supported by the use of subcontractors, it added.
Earlier in 2024, TFI snapped up less-than-truckload carrier Hercules Forwarding Inc., bulk transportation specialist Sharp Trucking Services and food-grade liquids carrier LJW Tank Lines.
That followed 12 acquisitions in 2023, headlined by the blockbuster $1 billion Christmas purchase of flatbed specialist Daseke Inc.
Digesting the Daseke acquisition is not hampering TFI’s appetite for more takeovers, with CEO Alain Bédard intimating during the company’s past couple of earnings calls that more tuck-in deals were a certainty.
“If something came along before the end of the fourth quarter [of 2024] … we will do it,” Bédard said during the company’s fourth-quarter 2023 call with analysts earlier this year. “Daseke is not a big rock in our shoe.”
The deal would be either in the specialty truckload space or in the U.S. logistics arena, Bédard said, adding: “We’re ready to look at it. We’re in.” TFI would be keenly eyeing a deal involving tank, flatbed or dump truck markets, he added, noting, “We really like specialty truckload.”
And TFI needs to bolster its truckload operations ahead of an expected spinoff in 2025.
Operating income at the truckload unit decreased 41% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2024 to $41.5 million from $70.5 million, primarily on lower volumes. Bédard bemoaned Q1 freight market conditions when discussing TFI’s Q1 results with analysts April 26.
“What we saw in Q1 was way, way worse than expected,” the carrier’s top executive said.
“I would never have anticipated ’24 was going to be so rough in terms of the freight environment,” Bédard said, adding that the ongoing freight recession was unlikely to end before the start of 2025.
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Profits at TFI fell 17.1% year-over-year in Q1 to $92.8 million from $111.9 million in the same period a year earlier.
Alongside bolstering its truckload operations, turning around TFI’s U.S. LTL operations is a key focus for the company in 2024, with the March acquisition of Hercules intended to help speed up the metamorphosis.
LTL carrier Hercules focuses on intra-U.S. and U.S.-to-Canada cross-border transportation. The company’s focus is direct shipper customers across end markets including consumer/retail; heating, ventilation and air conditioning/building products; automotive; industrial; third-party logistics and food/beverage.
TFI ranks No. 4 on the Transport Topics Top 100 list of the largest for-hire carriers in North America.
