Post Capital Partners has partnered with the existing management team – Steve Smith, Bill Nichols, Jeff Maser and Christine Postlmayr – to purchase Smith Transportation Services, LLC (together with its affiliates, including Smith-Cargo and Cargo-West, “Smith Transportation” or the “Company”) from its previous owners. Sam Woodward, a Post Capital Executive Partner and transportation industry veteran also participated with the buying group.
Founded in 2001, Smith Transportation is a national full-service third-party logistics & asset-light transportation services provider, with a leading presence in the Florida market. The Company’s comprehensive brokerage servicing offering spans nationwide, across multiple modes of transportation, including Load-to-Ride (“LTR”), Less-than-Truckload (“LTL”), truckload and rail/intermodal brokerage. Additionally, Smith Transportation maintains exclusive relationships with owner-operator drivers, enabling the Company to provide dedicated capacity to customers who maintain regularly scheduled routes.
“Smith Transportation has a longstanding reputation of providing critical transportation solutions for its customers on a nationwide basis,” said Michael Pfeffer, Managing Director of Post Capital. “We are thrilled to partner with Steve Smith and the rest of the management team to support them as they implement the Company’s growth initiatives, which includes adding additional talent, expanding the Company’s LTR service to additional geographies and potential tuck-in acquisitions.”
Smith Transportation’s unique LTR service offering has proven to be an attractive alternative to many shipper-customers that have traditionally utilized LTL to ship partial truckloads due to its competitive pricing, faster delivery times and reduced freight handling and damage. The Company currently offers its LTR product outbound from Florida, Southern California and the New York metro area, but intends to expand its LTR services to additional geographies in the future.
Steve Smith, Company President and COO, commented, “Our partnership with Post Capital is extremely exciting for Smith Transportation and our employees. Post’s investment will enable us to supercharge our growth, to invest in new technology and to expand our geographic footprint. We look forward to Post’s support in helping us to pursue our strategic plan and to continue finding ways to better serve our customers’ and carrier-partners’ needs.”
“This transaction is a great example of Post Capital’s Executive-First strategy in action,” added Isaac Chalal, a Vice President of Post Capital. “In this situation, we partnered with an extremely talented team of individuals - many of which have worked together for several years - and utilized our relationship with a long-time Executive Partner of our firm to evaluate and execute the investment. Sam Woodward will also be a phenomenal resource to the Company as it executes its plan going forward.”
Patriot Capital provided senior debt financing for the transaction, Winston & Strawn LLP served as Post Capital’s legal advisor and BDO served as Post Capital’s financial advisor. Cross Keys Capital served as financial advisor to the Company and its selling shareholders.
