GPR Logistics, LLC (GPR) has announced the recent acquisition of the East Coast facilities and operations of The Gilbert Company from Maersk Inc., the U.S. land-based component of container shipping giant, Maersk Line. Effective Oct. 1, 2011, GPR owns The Gilbert Company's East Coast facilities and operations, as well as the rights to The Gilbert Company name and website. GPR was established by Richard Gilbert, who founded The Gilbert Company in 1986 and Gregg Prisco, former president and CEO of P&O Nedlloyd Logistics, LLC, which has owned and run The Gilbert Company since it was sold by Gilbert to P&O Nedlloyd in 2002. Mr. Gilbert is also the founder and president of the truckload and logistics company, Gilbert Express.

The Gilbert Company has been an established warehouse, distribution and transportation services provider to the retail industry for more than 25 years. Today, the company serves customers nationwide across three market segments ' big-box and specialty apparel retailers, and their vendors ' out of a 300,000-square-foot multi-client warehouse located at 1000 Riverside Drive in Keasbey, N.J. The 87 dock-door facility sits on 20 acres and features 280,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space and 20,000 square feet of office space.

'Across the board, shippers are challenged by supply chains that are growing longer and more complex, and capacity that's only going to get tighter,' said Gregg Prisco, president and CEO of The Gilbert Company. 'The Gilbert Company differentiates itself from its competitors by maintaining a customer-centric business model. Our mission is to offer more than just the transportation and warehousing services they need ' but the attention and superior service required to get product on store shelves, on-time, every time. We're excited to work together again to use our breadth of relevant expertise and get back to doing what we've done so well in the past ' serve all aspects of the retail market.'

Customers of The Gilbert Company gain access to a range of scalable, flexible and efficient warehouse and transportation services, including a fleet of more than 250 trucks, value-added warehousing, domestic retail consolidation and deconsolidation, domestic retail store delivery and international deconsolidation. The company also provides state-of-the art warehouse and transportation management systems, increased visibility via web-based tracking and hardware and software solutions augmented by an extensive list of electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions to ensure consistent and accurate data flow.