Red Arts Capital announced it has acquired warehousing and transloading services provider Partners Warehouse.
Headquartered outside of Chicago, Partners Warehouse operates eight facilities with nearly 1 million square feet of space in Illinois. Its warehousing functions include cross docking, pick-and-pack, container unloading and rail car loading and unloading. It serves the building materials, lumber, metals, automotive and consumer goods verticals.
Partners Warehouse headquarters sit near the entrance of one of BNSF’s (NYSE: BRK.B) primary rail and intermodal yards. Each year the company processes freight from several thousand rail cars and containers.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Our country is facing a significant shortage of warehousing capacity, with nearly 1 billion square feet of new industrial space needed by 2025 to keep up with extraordinary demand,” Nick Antoine, co-founder and co-CEO at Red Arts Capital, stated in a news release. “We believe that Partners is well positioned to provide much-needed warehousing capacity as it continues to grow near Chicago’s highly strategic inland port.”
The deal was the latest in a string of transactions for the Chicago-based middle-market private equity firm focused on investment in supply chain and logistics companies.
The firm acquired packaging and supply chain services provider Coregistics in June. It was also part of the ownership group that sold less-than-truckload carrier Midwest Motor Express to Knight-Swift (NYSE: KNX) for $150 million at the end of 2021. That deal was a follow-on investment in the LTL space for Knight-Swift, which purchased AAA Cooper Transportation a year ago.
The Red Arts Capital portfolio also includes Canadian 3PL Radius Logistics, which it acquired in January 2021, and LTL provider Sunset Pacific Transportation.
Red Arts Capital’s investment in Partners Warehouse will extend beyond the initial acquisition.
“Today, the Partners Warehouse holding company employs approximately 150 people. We anticipate nearly doubling the platform’s headcount and square foot capacity just this year alone,” said Chad Strader, Red Arts Capital co-founder and co-CEO.
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