short takes

Plastic returnable packaging specialist ORBIS Corp. has agreed to acquire the North American material handling business of LINPAC Group Ltd. of Birmingham, England. The acquired LINPAC business manufactures bulk containers and pallets used in automotive, food, beverage and general industrial applications. Included in the purchase are manufacturing facilities in Georgetown and Bardstown, Ky. The transaction also includes LINPAC's sales, engineering and testing capabilities in Shanghai, China. ... Con-way Inc. has renamed its Con-way Transportation company Con-way Truckload Services Inc. to align its truckload asset-based business with its non-asset truckload brokerage and intermodal marketing operation (previously called Con-way Full Load). The two will now operate under the Truckload Services banner. ... National Distribution Centers, a New Jersey-based third-party warehouse operator, has purchased the assets of Crum and Crum. As part of the deal, NDC will acquire two distribution facilities totaling nearly a million square feet in West Sacramento, Calif., and Hebron, Ky. ... Hytrol Conveyor Co. is offering a comprehensive guarantee for on-time shipments. The company says it will begin paying the freight if it fails to meet the published lead time for any 24-hour, one week, two week or four week standard product. ... TNT has completed the sale of its logistics division to affiliates of Apollo Management, LP, a private equity firm. Dave Kulik was named CEO of the new company. ... Tom Zosel Associates, a logistics consulting firm headquartered in Chicago, has opened a new office in Atlanta as part of its expansion into high-growth markets. ... Savi Technology has received approval from the China State Radio Regulation Committee to use its family of RFID products throughout the country. ... SEKO, a company that provides freight forwarding and logistics solutions, has opened an office in Sao Paulo, Brazil. ... The PWC Logistics group of companies, which includes GeoLogistics, Transoceanic and Trans-Link, will re-brand itself with a new company name—Agility. The company has 20,000 employees in over 100 countries. ... Lockheed Martin, which acquired Savi Technology in June, is establishing a new organization to provide integrated real-time information solutions and services known as the Savi Group. The new entity, to be led by Vic Verma, aligns Lockheed Martin's decision support expertise for large government in-transit visibility, cargo security and asset management with Savi Technology's real-time RFID-based data collection and management capabilities. ... Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T, is acquiring Comergent Technologies, a developer of eBusiness software. Sterling will pay $155 million in cash for Comergent.