Transportation and logistics company Geodis said Tuesday it plans to buy Need It Now Delivers in a combination that creates a multi-billion-dollar enterprise.
Geodis, headquartered and founded in France, offers companies contract logistics, freight forwarding, distribution and transportation services with sales of 10.9 billion euros ($11.1 billion) last year.
The purchase of New Jersey-based Need It Now bolsters Geodis’ last mile, omnichannel and same-day logistics services in the U.S.
Need It Now is expected to end the year with revenue of about $750 million. The deal also brings to Geodis a real estate portfolio that includes 65 locations.
Geodis, through a spokesperson, declined to disclose the purchase price.
The deal, once closed, creates a business that had U.S. sales last year of $3.7 billion and an Americas headcount of 17,000.
“Our U.S. supply chain business has consistently grown over the last 10 years,” Geodis Americas president and CEO Mike Honious said in a statement announcing the acquisition. “With the services, capabilities and the leadership team of Need It Now Delivers, we will expand our offerings and support the growth strategies of our customers.”
A big part of that is the demand for contract logistics service providers that can move with companies’ growing digital businesses and the increasing complexity required in e-commerce supply chains.
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The deal would further build on Geodis’ eLogistics division, which is focused on last mile and other e-commerce-related services aimed at small- and medium-sized businesses. The company touts two-day shipping for 91 percent of the U.S. mainland out of its facilities.
In May Geodis opened a fulfillment center for the division in Nashville totaling 66,245 square feet, which added to a portfolio of existing hubs in California, New Jersey and Indiana.
“E-commerce has really blown up, but the segment of e-commerce brands that are these startups, emerging brands, that segment is growing. We can probably thank a lot of the social media advertising or the ability to really target their customers in a meaningful way,” Matt Barr, Geodis eLogistics senior director of product strategy, told Sourcing Journal earlier this year. “So, we’ve put together a really strong solution that enables them to grow into scale, whether that’s going from one facility to two, whether that’s just needing more space or some parts of the space in a facility some parts of the year.”
Need It Now CEO Eric Mautner said the acquisition gives the two companies scale and an “expansive network of flexible, efficient and reliable services.”
The buy comes on the heels of Geodis earlier this year acquiring Keppel Logistics, giving it expanded service in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Last year the company purchased Poland-based Pekaes, along with Gandon Transports and Transports Perrier in France.
The company said it expects the regulatory review and approvals process for the deal to be completed by the end of the year.
Geodis said late last month in its half-year financial results update that it will continue “an ongoing strategy of targeted acquisitions” that furthers its aim to build “a global and integrated network of transport and logistics hubs.”
Companywide revenue for the first half of the year totaled 6.8 billion euros ($6.9 billion), up 34 percent from the prior year with the growth driven by freight forwarding. In the U.S. Geodis’ performance was driven by companies looking to them for contract logistics services, in line with the growth of e-commerce.
Geodis’ earnings before interest and taxes jumped 53 percent from the year-ago period to 309 million euros ($314.4 million).
The logistics firm said it remains upbeat on its outlook, but tempered that in its half-year update noting “the level of macroeconomic uncertainty remains high,” citing COVID in China, inflation and ocean capacity.