World Group acquires Pacific Northwest 3PL

Pacific Cascade adds drayage, trucking capabilities to portfolio

Deal “bolsters service footprint in Pacific Northwest,” World Group says. (Photo: Jim Allen/FreightWaves)

Transportation and logistics conglomerate World Group announced Wednesday the acquisition of distribution and trucking company Pacific Cascade.

Founded in 2005, Sumner, Washington-based Pacific Cascade provides packaging, storage and fulfillment services out of a 267,000-square-foot facility near the ports of Seattle and Tacoma. The company primarily runs an asset-light model but also operates a fleet of more than 50 trucks, which provide container drayage and transloading services throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Financial terms of the transaction were not provided.

“This is part of our strategic vision to utilize the Pacific Northwest as a transportation corridor for our customers and do it using all World Group companies,” Fred Hunger, World Group CEO, said about the deal. “Housed within our portfolio, we now have the perfect trifecta of capacity for our customers in the PNW — ocean, warehouse and distribution and trucking.”

Cleveland-based World Group is the parent of multiple transportation and logistics companies, including drayage trucking provider ContainerPort Group, NVOCC freight forwarder UWL and warehousing and distribution provider World Distribution Services.

UWL recently announced a new dedicated feeder ocean service from Southeast Asia to the U.S. As part of the launch, it added a distribution facility in Tacoma to support the service.

“We have quite the synergy within our offerings for this region, and we believe it will be the next big thing for customers looking for alternative transportation corridors to LA/Long Beach,” Hunger said. “[Pacific Cascade] will help us build on the momentum and investments from the last 12 months in the Pacific Northwest, and together we can continue to accomplish incredible things for our customers.”

Pacific Cascade founder and CEO Jeff Roulst and chief operating officer Frank Wolf will continue to run the daily operations, a separate news release said.

“World Group’s operating companies have a robust presence east of the Rockies, and their recent significant investments in the Pacific Northwest, including a new distribution facility and an express ocean service, demonstrate a commitment to long-term growth in this region,” Roulst stated. “Our leadership teams share a similar vision, and we are excited to see where this journey takes us together.”

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Todd Maiden

Based in Richmond, VA, Todd is the finance editor at FreightWaves. Prior to joining FreightWaves, he covered the TLs, LTLs, railroads and brokers for RBC Capital Markets and BB&T Capital Markets. Todd began his career in banking and finance before moving over to transportation equity research where he provided stock recommendations for publicly traded transportation companies.