C.H. Robinson Acquires 2 European Forwarders

Old news, but not really big news at that. Third party logistics provider giant C.H. Robinson just acquired 2 relatively small European freight forwarders. The names of the freight forwarders are Hirdes Group Worldwide, with seven locations in Germany three in the U.S., and Bussini Transport, with one location in Milan, Italy. According to the article, the combined gross revenue of both companies is only USD 52 million.

On the surface, such a move may produce some head scratching, but small, well targeted acquisitions tend to be smarter moves than the larger multi-billion dollar mergers we are used to seeing in the headline news.

In one of my previous companies, they often would target small but extremely successful companies for acquisition, particularly those that excelled in a unique logistics service - such as perishable logistics or textile logistics - or that dominated the local market. Rather than trying to start from scratch, it makes good sense to make smart acquisitions of such companies so that you are competitive from the start.

As for this particular deal, I do not know much about Bussini Transport or Hirdes Group Worldwide, so I can not determine if this was a wise move or not by C.H. Robinson, but if either or both companies have strong value in their respective markets then I would guess that C.H. Robinson made a wise move. If anyone has more details about these 2 companies or the acquisition on the whole, by all means please let us know.