St. George Logistics, a portfolio company of Wind Point Partners, has acquired Channel Distribution Corp. St. George Logistics was acquired by Wind Point in July 2016 from LongueVue Capital and Ironwood Capital.
Channel Distribution Corp. (CDC), founded in 1985, operates a full-service warehouse and distribution center in Bensenville, IL, adjacent to O’Hare International Airport. CDC handles international import and export ocean cargo, international air import freight, and domestic distribution logistics. Services include cross dock, trans-loading, inventory management, order fulfillment and pick and pack. CDC is a Customs Bonded Warehouse, Centralized Examination Station, Bonded Container Freight Station as well as the only General Order (G.O.) warehouse in the Port of Chicago (www.channeldc.com).
CDC’s management, led by Founder Joe Tamari and Partner Alan Muir, will both continue with the business and will join St. George as shareholders and senior members of its executive management team. “We welcome Joe Tamari, Alan Muir and the entire CDC team to the St. George family as we continue to build our presence in one of the most important logistics markets in North America,” said Chris Jamroz, Executive Chairman of St. George. “CDC more than doubles our footprint in Chicago, expands St. George’s services into air cargo, Centralized Examination Station services, General Order, and last mile transportation. Moreover, CDC complements our Chicago team with an experienced, operationally focused group of managers.”
“CDC is the fifth add-on acquisition that St. George has completed since Wind Point acquired the platform in July 2016. Consistent with our original value creation plan, acquisitions will remain an important driver of growth for St. George and we continue to evaluate companies active in the asset-light 3PL and transportation sectors,” said Konrad Salaber, a Managing Director at Wind Point Partners.
St. George is a provider of container freight station (CFS) services for ocean and air cargo imported into the United States. The company also provides logistics services, including contract warehousing, distribution, e-commerce fulfillment and transportation services. The St. George customer base includes freight forwarders, neutral NVOCCs (non-vessel operating common carriers), retailers, consumer packaged goods companies, and other businesses. The company is headquartered near Newark in South Kearny, NJ with additional facilities located in the nation’s largest ports and metropolitan areas, including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Savannah and Charleston (www.stgusa.com).
“In September 2017, we established Chicago as our regional headquarters and announced a multi-million dollar expansion to our logistics center in Elk Grove Village. This initiative, intended to expand capacity, improve efficiency, and enhance customer service, is expected to be significantly bolstered by the addition of CDC and its management,” said Hessel Verhage, President and CEO of St. George.
Wind Point invests from $30 million to $150 million in companies with revenues from $100 million to $500 million and EBITDAs of at least $10 million. Industries of interest include business services, consumer products and industrial products. Wind Point was founded in 1984 and is based in Chicago. In June 2017, Wind Point held a final closing of its eighth fund, Wind Point Partners VIII, with $985 million of capital commitments. The fund exceeded its initial hard cap of $750 million and marks the largest fund closing in Wind Point’s history (www.wppartners.com).
Financing for the buy of CDC was provided by Antares Capital, LStar Capital and Newstar Financial. KPMG provided transaction advisory services on the transaction.
© 2017 Private Equity Professional | December 15, 2017
