Perfect North-South Combination Creates New Top 3PL

The North American transportation and logistics industry has seen a tremendous amount of M&A activity over the last few years. This trend is set to continue or perhaps even accelerate in 2019 as 3PL’s leverage mergers and acquisitions to strengthen their market positions, increase service offerings, expand geographic coverage, and drive growth.

“Despite the recent flurry of mergers, the North American TL brokerage space is still pretty fragmented,” said John Leach, CEO FLS Transportation Services Limited. “A healthy economy, tight labor market, and high consumer demand are creating a strong environment for 3PL’s to acquire other smaller players to quickly scale their services to better serve the growing demand from shippers.”

FLS Transportation Services is no stranger to mergers & acquisitions having just acquired Georgia based Scott Logistics Corp. Scott was recently recognized by Transport Topics as the 42nd largest broker in the U.S.

“Scott Logistics is one of the fastest growing 3Pls in our space,” said Leach. “The combination of FLS’s 30-year cross border expertise with Scott’s dense US carrier network will significantly increase our scale and coverage in the deep south. It truly is the perfect North-South combination.”

With this strategic acquisition FLS establishes its position as a major player in the 3PL space and sets the foundation to further increase its industry leading growth.

“Prior to acquiring Scott Logistics, FLS was already known as one of the Top 30 Freight Brokerage Firms in North America,” said Leach. “What this acquisition does is create a new top 3PL with revenues in excess of $500 M.”

The third-party logistics industry is likely to see an increase in consolidation as 3PLs race to position themselves as value added partners to shippers’ supply chains. The first few months of 2019 alone have seen three other major acquisitions with GlobalTranz acquiring Freight Guy, Redwood Logistics acquiring LTX Solutions, and C.H.Robinson acquiring Madrid based The Space Cargo Group.

As for FLS & Scott, the companies are looking forward to leveraging their enhanced capabilities, combined carrier network, and decades worth of experience to capture a larger share of the North American freight market.

“Both FLS and Scott’s existing customers will greatly benefit from our expanded reach and experience, “said Leach. “We’re excited to see what 2019 holds as we continue our strategic expansion bringing our vast portfolio of services and keen focus on service to new customers across North America.”

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