Schneider Logistics to sell off U.S. and China freight forwarding customs house brokerage businesses

Third-party logistics (3PL) services provider Schneider Logistics, a subsidiary of Schneider International, said it will sell its United States- and China-based freight forwarding and customs house brokerage businesses to Norbert Denressangle, a Lyon, Paris-based provider of transportation, logistics, and freight forwarding services.

The deal is expected to close by October 1. Financial terms were not made available.

Schneider officials said that this acquisition does not impact the company’s other global supply chain offerings, including transloading, warehousing, distribution, port drayage services, inland logistics management, supply chain management, brokerage, or domestic China transportation services. They added that the 56 Schneider Logistics employees will effectively become Norbert Denressangle employees and that there will be no job losses resultant from the sale.

A Schneider spokesperson told LM there were multiple drivers for the company to sell off its United States- and China-based freight forwarding and customs house brokerage businesses, which is has operated since 2006.

“Like most divestitures, for Schneider this is about focus,” said the spokesperson. “While the freight forwarding and customs house brokerage business has great potential, it is not part of our current strategic focus on our core truckload, logistics and intermodal services. This sale puts the business in the hands of a company that plans to invest in the people, technology and resources to grow the business. Schneider was approached by Norbert Dentressangle and the deal came together fairly quickly.”

The spokesperson also said that Schneider will continue to provide freight forwarding and customs house services by working with companies like Norbert Dentressangle.

Norbert Dentressangle was established in 1979 and reported 2009 revenues of $3.5 billion (U.S.). The company has 27,000 employees in 355 locations in 17 countries.

Schneider CEO and President Chris Lofgren said in a statement that the expertise of Schneider’s freight forwarding and customs house brokerage team will enable Norbert Dentressangle to grow its existing business and leverage its European customer base to generate new business in the United States for themselves as well as Schneider’s current customers.

Armstrong & Associates President Evan Armstrong told LM that this deal signals a retrenchment of sorts by Schneider.

“Earlier this year Schneider outsourced a lot of its European functions and operations to Exel, and this is a continuation of them retrenching,” said Armstong. “It is pretty surprising they are getting out of the Chinese market, considering that is one of the major growth markets globally. But it definitely looks like they are retrenching and regrouping around its core U.S. operations. It is a definite sign of weakness for its logistics operations.”