Redwood Logistics announced its acquisition of Atlanta-based LTX Solutions today, which will allow the growing logistics company to strengthen its core less-than-truckload business and increase its presence across the Southeast.
Redwood, a leading Chicago-based brokerage and third-party logistics provider, has proven to be a disruptive force in the industry as one of the nation’s fastest growing logistics providers. Outside of traditional logistics solutions, Redwood provides TMS consulting implementation and integration expertise, as well as a proprietary middleware platform called RedwoodConnect.
CI Capital Partners, which owns Redwood, oversaw its successful 2018 integration with Simplified Logistics. This acquisition of LTX is a continuation of Redwood’s goal of becoming a leading North American 3PL provider.
LTX currently offers LTL freight management, as well as transportation accounting services and technology solutions. The company is anchored by industry experts and boasts a strong commitment to data-driven services.
“They (LTX) truly are experts in their domain. We like this level of expertise. For a small organization, they’re very progressive on the data services side,” Redwood President Todd Berger said. “We strive to be a data-driven organization. These folks use this data every day to make smarter decisions for their clients and their carriers, and that’s something we do as well.”
While Redwood has moved freight in and out of the Southeast for quite some time, this acquisition provides the company with strong operational presence in the region. This geographical expansion is a key component of Redwood’s overall acquisition strategy.
“This really gives us an operating presence in the LTL sector in the beginning, but in the very near term we’re going to expand to provide the full suite of services, including truckload, LTL, supply chain management services and pretty much everything the company currently provides,” Redwood CEO Mark Yeager said.
LTX already has a strong customer base in the Southeast, but the company has only been able to offer LTL services to those customers. The Redwood acquisition will offer existing LTX customers the option to take advantage of a wider range of services while also drawing in new customers.
“We think what we can do is bring our executional capabilities on the truckload and supply chain side to LTX and to their customers. We’re pretty excited about it, and LTX is excited about it,” Yeager said. “They’ve historically been resource-restrained. They’ve never really had the ability to have that intellectual capital and the technology that we can make available to them and to their customers.”
Yeager emphasized that Redwood pursued LTX not just because of the company’s location and product offerings, but because of the existing team at LTX and the company’s culture.
LTX shines a spotlight on its energetic, forward-looking culture across its company website. Yeager said the company’s energy and commitment to innovation is already a close match to Redwood’s culture, paving the way for a successful transition.
“We really like how they service their customers and the energy they bring every day to work. They have shown an ability, with limited resources, to really be able to do a lot of creative things for their customers,” Yeager said. “Their approach is just very similar to our own.”
Redwood plans to both invest in LTX’s existing team and bring on new players to help fill in knowledge gaps and expand offerings, including truckload and supply chain experts, according to Yeager.
When Redwood considers acquisitions, they look for options that strengthen the company’s core offering, expand its geographic reach and fit into the existing culture. Yeager said LTX checked off all those boxes, making it an ideal choice.
“Existing LTX customers can expect a whole lot of the same and a whole lot more,” Berger said. “These guys do a tremendous job for their clients. We don’t fix what’s not broken, so really what we want to bring is bring additions, not changes.”
The terms of transaction have not been disclosed.