Kewill Systems Buys Out Aristo

By Staff -- Logistics Management, 9/1/1999

With its latest acquisition, the British-based Kewill Systems PLC has in one fell swoop captured two-thirds of the market for multi-carrier shipping compliance software for personal computers. Kewill recently bought Aristo Research Inc. and Aristo Computers Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., for $18 million.

Kewill already owns a Windows-based shipping solution, Clippership, which is included in its electronic commerce operating division. Kewill plans to add Aristo's applications to that division. Aristo's software includes the Aristo Parcel Shipping System, which helps users control multi-carrier requirements, and the Aristo Receiving Management System, which automates the receipt of incoming packages and mail.

Kewill says it believes that the growth in PC-based multi-carrier shipping compliance software is being driven by a shift from single- to multi-carrier systems. The company projects that the market for such software will triple by the year 2003.

"This is an important strategic acquisition [that] not only gives Kewill a leading position in the U.S. shipping compliance market but the leading position in the higher-growth U.S. multi-carrier shipping compliance software market," says Geoffrey Finlay, CEO of Kewill Systems.

Based in Walton on Thames in the United Kingdom, Kewill entered the shipping management software market last year when it bought Tracer Research Inc. of Marlborough, Mass., which developed Clippership.