ZS Fund L.P., a private equity firm and majority owner of Transervice Logistics, (CCJ Top 250, No. 155) has acquired Lily Transportation (No. 140), a Needham, Massachusetts-based dedicated contract carriage company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Transervice President & Chief Executive Officer Gregg Nierenberg will also assume the role of President & CEO of Lily and Alex Lafaras, Transervice executive vice president and chief financial officer will assume the same role for Lily. John Simourian II, Lily’s current President & CEO will become Chairman of Lily and a board member and investor in Lily and Transervice, and "will be fully engaged in providing support and guidance to Lily’s new leadership," he said.
Each business will continue to operate as separate companies, retaining their independent corporate names and separate field and management teams.
Nierenberg said this dual-brand approach creates more opportunities for customers given the strong cultures already present in both companies known for their customer focus, empowered managers and flexible, agile approach. “These are differentiators we will continue to embrace and promote,” he said.
The transaction substantially increases the scale of services and resources that Transervice and Lily bring to the marketplace with a combined 2,600 employees, over 1,750 drivers in more than 185 North American locations, and approximately 27,000 pieces of equipment.
The increased scale is concentrated in the companies’ dedicated contract carriage and freight brokerage offerings, which are in addition to the contract maintenance and full-service leasing services offered by Transervice.
Nierenberg said he expects the transaction to provide more flexibility when matching prospective new customer needs and locations with each company’s strengths.
“Transervice and Lily’s cultures and business approaches are remarkably similar,” said Nierenberg. “Both companies have many very long-standing customer relationships. We value these partnerships and will continue to give our customers the white glove touch. Every customer is provided with a senior executive point-of-contact to ensure responsive, efficient management in their day-to-day operations.”
The acquisition is at least the eighth made this year by a CCJ Top 250 fleet. Forward Air Corporation (No. 57) in January agreed to acquire full-service expedited LTL carrier Land Air Express for $56.5 million and R.E. Garrison Trucking (No. 124) completed the acquisition of certain assets of Boaty’s Transport. In March, Big G Express (No. 173) acquired RTR Transportation and Knight-Swift Transportation (No. 5) announced its acquisition of U.S. Xpress (No. 19). Trimac (No. 64) acquired American Industrial Partners Logistics. TFI International Inc. (No. 4) in May agreed to acquire Siemens Transportation Group (STG) and completed the acquisition of Hot Line Freight Systems.
