Containerized freight handler STG acquires Best Dedicated Solutions

The private equity-backed logistics service provider STG Logistics today said it had acquired Best Dedicated Solutions (BDS), which is an over-the-road (OTR) transportation provider based in Vernon Hills, Illinois.

Chicago-based STG said the deal would add expedited, dry van, temperature control, and flatbed transportation solutions to complement its existing portfolio of intermodal, drayage, and facility-based containerized logistics services.

STG says it runs the nation's largest network of container freight station and transload facilities. Part of the reason for that is that last year, it paid $710 million to buy the North American intermodal business unit of XPO Logistics, which of course was a sprawling third party logistics conglomerate that was spinning off many of its assets.

Now it’s integrating some of those components into a tighter combination, STG CEO Paul Svindland said in a release. "The acquisition of BDS provides us with the ability to offer customers a complete containerized logistics solution, allowing us to move freight via our own domestic intermodal containers or via an OTR solution – whichever is optimal for the customer," he said.

Terms of this deal were not disclosed, but STG was able to rely on funding from its owners at Wind Point Partners and Oaktree Capital Management.

Following the deal, BDS CEO Danny Esplin will continue to lead the business as STG's senior vice president of truck brokerage and will join STG's executive leadership team. In Esplin’s words, "Joining STG will allow us to offer additional asset-based solutions to existing customers, but also provide a key component of STG's vision to provide a truly vertically integrated port-to-door solution to customers.”

STG now operates a nationwide network comprised of 70 locations totaling more than five million square feet, 15,000 intermodal containers, 6,000 chassis, and nearly 3,000 tractors providing port and rail drayage services.