Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Peak-Ryzex buys fellow data collection provider Bar Code Direct

Private equity owner Sole Source Capital rolls up eighth auto-ID acquisition since 2020.

peak_ryzex_Image_5-18-21_at_2.31_PM.jpg

For the second time in a month, the barcoding and data collection provider Peak-Ryzex has gone back on the acquisition trail, announcing today that it has leveraged its private equity backing to buy another auto-ID provider, Bar Code Direct.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but investment firm Sole Source Capital LLC said the move would add to Columbia, Maryland-based Peak-Ryzex’s ability to serve its expanding array of client segments.

The deal comes as retailers and third party logistics providers (3PLs) are hustling to keep up with an e-commerce boom and economic recovery, even as pandemic pressures constrict the labor pool and freight capacity sectors.

Sole Source Capital itself has been on an acquisition tear in the sector, with this latest deal its eighth purchase of companies providing automatic identification and data capture tools since 2020. The California-based firm in April bought Peak-Ryzex and Optical Phusion Inc., merging them into a single company. In May it added Inovity Inc. to that collection, and today added Bar Code Direct to the group.

Headquartered in North Grafton, Massachusetts, Bar Code Direct says it is a value-added reseller of AIDC solutions for the manufacturing, retail, consumer, and healthcare end-markets. It is focused on applications for warehouse workers, freight truck drivers, field service technicians, in-store associates, package delivery, and sales personnel.

The Latest

More Stories

team collaborating on data with laptops

Gartner: data governance strategy is key to making AI pay off

Supply chain planning (SCP) leaders working on transformation efforts are focused on two major high-impact technology trends, including composite AI and supply chain data governance, according to a study from Gartner, Inc.

"SCP leaders are in the process of developing transformation roadmaps that will prioritize delivering on advanced decision intelligence and automated decision making," Eva Dawkins, Director Analyst in Gartner’s Supply Chain practice, said in a release. "Composite AI, which is the combined application of different AI techniques to improve learning efficiency, will drive the optimization and automation of many planning activities at scale, while supply chain data governance is the foundational key for digital transformation.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

dexory robot counting warehouse inventory

Dexory raises $80 million for inventory-counting robots

The British logistics robot vendor Dexory this week said it has raised $80 million in venture funding to support an expansion of its artificial intelligence (AI) powered features, grow its global team, and accelerate the deployment of its autonomous robots.

A “significant focus” continues to be on expanding across the U.S. market, where Dexory is live with customers in seven states and last month opened a U.S. headquarters in Nashville. The Series B will also enhance development and production facilities at its UK headquarters, the firm said.

Keep ReadingShow less
container cranes and trucks at DB Schenker yard

Deutsche Bahn says sale of DB Schenker will cut debt, improve rail

German rail giant Deutsche Bahn AG yesterday said it will cut its debt and boost its focus on improving rail infrastructure thanks to its formal approval of the deal to sell its logistics subsidiary DB Schenker to the Danish transport and logistics group DSV for a total price of $16.3 billion.

Originally announced in September, the move will allow Deutsche Bahn to “fully focus on restructuring the rail infrastructure in Germany and providing climate-friendly passenger and freight transport operations in Germany and Europe,” Werner Gatzer, Chairman of the DB Supervisory Board, said in a release.

Keep ReadingShow less
containers stacked in a yard

Reinke moves from TIA to IANA in top office

Transportation industry veteran Anne Reinke will become president & CEO of trade group the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) at the end of the year, stepping into the position from her previous post leading third party logistics (3PL) trade group the Transportation Intermediaries Association (TIA), both organizations said today.

Reinke will take her new job upon the retirement of Joni Casey at the end of the year. Casey had announced in July that she would step down after 27 years at the helm of IANA.

Keep ReadingShow less
NOAA weather map of hurricane helene

Florida braces for impact of Hurricane Helene

Serious inland flooding and widespread power outages are likely to sweep across Florida and other Southeast states in coming days with the arrival of Hurricane Helene, which is now predicted to make landfall Thursday evening along Florida’s northwest coast as a major hurricane, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

While the most catastrophic landfall impact is expected in the sparsely-population Big Bend area of Florida, it’s not only sea-front cities that are at risk. Since Helene is an “unusually large storm,” its flooding, rainfall, and high winds won’t be limited only to the Gulf Coast, but are expected to travel hundreds of miles inland, the weather service said. Heavy rainfall is expected to begin in the region even before the storm comes ashore, and the wet conditions will continue to move northward into the southern Appalachians region through Friday, dumping storm total rainfall amounts of up to 18 inches. Specifically, the major flood risk includes the urban areas around Tallahassee, metro Atlanta, and western North Carolina.

Keep ReadingShow less