Press Release
Date: September 14, 2015
Pursant’s Investment Banking practice is pleased to announce that Tri Air Transportation, Inc. has been acquired by Custom Companies, Inc.
Our Client:
Established over 30 years ago, Tri Air Transportation, Inc (“Tri Air” or the “Company”) is a premier freight cartage company providing pick-up and delivery and dedicated freight operations to hundreds of customers throughout the Chicagoland area and upper Midwest. The business and its affiliates have been family owned and operated for almost 70 years
The Transaction:
In August 2015, Tri Air was acquired by The Custom Companies, Inc. (“Custom”). Custom was founded in 1986 and offers a complete range of transportation and logistics services across the North American continent. The Company is headquartered Northlake, Illinois with an additional facility in Los Angeles, California.
How Pursant Helped:
Pursant, LLC acted as the sole Merger & Acquisition Advisor to Tri Air for the transaction. Levenfeld Pearlstein LLC acted as legal counsel to Tri Air. The Pursant team took ownership of the transaction process from beginning through close, freeing the owners of Tri Air to focus on the continuing operations of their business. Pursant identified and worked with the universe of buyers that stood to gain the most from acquiring Tri Air, managed a competitive bid process and executed every phase of the deal-cycle with precision.
Accolades:
Perry Mandera, CEO of Custom commented “We are extremely excited to be providing transportation and logistics services to the Tri Air customer community. In addition to providing the top quality local cartage and dedicated cartage services that these customers have been accustomed to, we look forward to providing additional and enhanced logistics and technology solutions given the breadth and depth of our transportation platform. In addition to its impressive customer portfolio, Tri Air employed dedicated and talented drivers and operational team members. We are excited that many of them have elected to join our team. I also want to acknowledge the team at Pursant for diligently and professionally managing every aspect of the process.
Dane Larsen, CEO of Tri Air commented “I chose Custom from a variety of suitors. Custom will efficiently and seamlessly integrate Tri Air’s customers onto their platform, providing customers with the same high quality, best in class service while simultaneously offering an expanded and more comprehensive solution set. Custom also recognized the value of our employees, many of which will be joining the Custom family. We selected Pursant after considering several alternatives. We knew we needed a proactive, dedicated and seasoned team to support our effort to sell our business. Pursant invested the time, energy and resources to understand our objectives and learn our business and operations. Pursant offered a differentiated approach with a disciplined process that challenged pre-screened buyers to compete for our business.
We are thrilled for both the owners of Tri Air and Custom. The owners of Tri Air were able to monetize the value of their company at the right time in relation to their objectives. As a full service freight transportation provider, Custom will offer Tri Air’s customer base an expanded and comprehensive solution as well as create excellent opportunities for the Tri Air employees to continue to meet and exceed their professional goals.” – Scott Glickson and Mark Herbick, Managing Director and CEO respectively of Pursant, LLC.