A takeover offer will strengthen CTI Logistics' services of regional Western Australia, the company says
CTI Logistics will buy regional Western Australian freight carrier Stirling Freight Express for $4.5 million as the company continues with a nation-wide expansion process.
A family-run business, Stirling operates depots in Perth, Albany, Bunbury, Geraldton, Merredin and Kalgoorlie and provides overnight delivery services to towns in the South-West of Western Australia with 100 employees and a fleet of over 50 vehicles.
All but the Merredin depot are fully owned by the vendors and will be leased by CTI, with these depot towns also boasting an on-ground fleet to help further facilitate product delivery.
The Stirling business will be merged into CTI’s existing regional freight network, with bases in Albany, Bunbury and Perth – with the future Perth Base to also house operations of CTI’s Broome Freightlines and Bunbury Freight Services.
CTI joint managing director Bruce Saxild tells ATN that his company planned to keep things as business as usual at Stirling in the short term, with Stirling’s principles to remain for a period to help oversee the business.
Saxild says he and CTI had been in talks with Stirling management about the potential takeover for the past six months, with the company ultimately planning to amalgamate bases where both companies had operations.
“It was just really a case where the vendors got to a stage where they wanted to retire and we were the right fit to take the business over – it is a good purchase for us because what it does is strengthen our regional network, which has been one of our stated goals for a number of years,” he says.
“We actually work closely together and have done for a number of years. We support their network and they support ours.”
Saxild added that Stirling had its own general manager and a solid team, separate from the company owners.
“We will be taking on all those employees, so it really is business as usual,” he says.
The acquisition comes after the company started leasing a 15,000sqm warehouse in the Melbourne suburb of Truganina earlier this year, after acquiring the Melbourne operations of rail carrier Jayde Transport in November last year.
Saxild says Jayde has fit in well with the business so far.
“What we are trying to do is find complementary acquisitions that make sense – not just from an earnings per share accretive basis, but also with what we are trying to achieve as we grow the business nationally.
Having been established in 1972 in Perth, CTI is hoping to expand its operatiosn across the Nullarbor – having first rolled out to South Australia.
“We appreciate there are a lot of good players on the eastern seaboard and we are just a minnow, but we just have to work our client base to see if we can find a position for ourselves,” Saxild says.
“So step by step … we’ve got to do it slowly but surely to pull it all together.”