Cross-border trucking and logistics firm XTL Group has acquired Georgia-based freight brokerage CBT, creating the Canadian firm’s first U.S.-based operation.
The acquisition, announced Monday, gives Toronto-based XTL a brokerage focused on serving the food service industry, and poultry and egg processors. The deal complements XTL’s trucking and freight brokerage businesses, which serve some of the same sectors within Canada and in cross-border operations with the U.S.
“They’ve never sold cross-border, and we’ve never sold domestic U.S. [freight],” Craig Germain, XTL’s chief operating officer, told FreightWaves. “So we’ve got an opportunity now to take those strong customer bases and introduce additional services in a marketplace that obviously is very hungry for capacity.”
XTL had long-standing plans to expand into the U.S. with an acquisition, Germain said.
The company found the right fit in Oakwood, Georgia-based CBT and its CEO, Connie Banks, who founded the brokerage in 1989. Germain said XTL saw similarities with how CBT approached its relationships with carriers.
“We’ve developed our carrier base in a very strategic fashion, partnering with the carriers to have that capacity so we can effectively sell that to our customers,” he said. “CBT has built themselves on the same model. As tight as the market has been over the last 18 months in the U.S., they’ve been able to grow — quite significantly. So it’s a testament to the way they treat their carriers.”
Acquisition ‘step one’ in US expansion, COO says
XTL follows other Canadian trucking and logistics firms that have entered the U.S. domestic freight market with an asset-light approach. Alberta-based Mullen Group acquired Chicago-area 3PL QuadExpress in June, while Ontario-based Titanium Transportation Group has opened three U.S. brokerage offices since 2019.
Germain said entering the U.S. with an asset-light acquisition made sense for XTL. He noted that the company’s asset-light operation in Canada has grown faster than any other part of its business.
XTL plans to continue expanding in the U.S., though Germain wouldn’t provide specifics.
“This is step one,” he said.
Privately held XTL did not disclose the price of the deal. In February, the company made the first acquisition in its 36-year history when it bought Quebec carrier Transport Savoie.
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