Forward Air Corp. has announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Forward Air Inc., has entered into an agreement to acquire certain assets of Black Hawk Freight Services Inc. Terms were not announced.
Black Hawk is a privately held provider of transportation services headquartered in Milan, Ill., that generated about $30 million in revenue during the year ended Dec. 31, 2006. The transaction is scheduled to close on or about Dec. 3 and is subject to the receipt of applicable consents and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.
“We are very excited to be acquiring the assets of a company of Black Hawk’s stature and reputation in our industry,” says Bruce A. Campbell, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Greeneville, Tenn.-based Forward Air. “Our respective operations are a good fit on many levels and further advance our ‘Completing the Model Initiatives.’ Their well-run cartage operation will support our Forward Air Complete initiative, and their pool distribution operations will add to the geographic footprint of our pool distribution provider, Forward Air Solutions. Moreover, their exclusive use vehicles, hotshot, customs services and airport-to-airport services nicely compliment our existing airport-to-airport network.”
In most acquisitions, Campbell says, a lot of time is spent worrying about the operational redundancies the acquired operation will bring. “That hasn’t been the case with Black Hawk,” he says. “We believe this acquisition will allow us to provide more service options for our existing customers, as well as greatly expanding and improving the service offerings for Black Hawk’s customers.”
“Forward Air is one of the most highly regarded companies in our industry,” says Jim Bellig, Black Hawk president. “We are extremely pleased we will be in a position to provide our customers with more service offerings over a much greater geographic area. We look forward to joining the Forward Air team.”
