Forward Air completes acquisition of Black Hawk Freight Services

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 12/4/2007

GREENEVILLE, Tenn.—Forward Air Corporation said this week that its wholly-owned subsidiary Forward Air Inc., a high-level air cargo service contractor and provider of time-definite ground transportation services, has completed its acquisition of Black Hawk Freight Services Inc., a Milan-Ill.-based provider of transportation services, including expedited line haul, exclusive use vehicles (EUV), local cartage, pool distribution services, customs services, and hot shots.

 Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

On November 26, Forward entered into an agreement to acquire Black Hawk. Black Hawk generated roughly $30 million in revenue for the year ending December 31, 2006, according to a Forward Air Corporation statement.

When the deal was first announced last month, Forward Air Corporation Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Rodney L. Bell told Logistics Management that this acquisition is beneficial for Forward and its customers on various fronts.

“Two-thirds of this acquisition is what we characterize as a ‘tuck-in,’ with the airport-to-airport and line haul business that is a part of our core business,” said Bell. “What makes Blackhawk particularly attractive is that is a very clean operation and very serviceable, as opposed to other competitors we have purchased in the past. And their pricing [model] was very comparable with ours.”

Bell added that Forward is continually on the look out for these types of acquisitions.

Competitive differentiators: In terms of how this deal will help Forward maintain a competitive advantage in the air cargo marketplace, Bell said it will now have access to four key Iowa markets it did not have access to before—Des Moines, Burlington, Cedar Rapids, and Moline (in the Quad City area).

Another benefit will be the continued segue way into the pool distribution business, which helps build a geographic footprint in that market as well. In late July, Forward acquired USA Carriers, a pool distribution services provider, which at the time of the acquisition had back-office operations in Fort Wayne, Ind.