Private equity firm Fenway Partners said yesterday it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Fastfrate Inc., a large Canadian transportation company whose principal businesses are Consolidated Fastfrate, Canada Drayage Inc., and Koch Transport. Fenway had made more than 20 acquisitions in the transportation and logistics sector since 2000.

Fastfrate has more than 1,500 employees and transports more than 2 billion pounds of freight on an annual basis, according to a Fenway statement. It was founded in 1966 by Don Freeman, and it offers various service offerings, including point to point less-than-truckload (LTL) and truckload haulage within Canada and the Northwest and Midwest United States. Other services offered include national drayage and cartage, warehousing, east coast and west coast transloading, special operational direct ship programs for retailers, third-party logistics, and LTL intermodal services. It also has an established 40-year relationship with Canadian Pacific Railway (CP), with co-located facilities with CP in every intermodal yard in Canada except for Edmonton, which is in development. Fastfrate has 17 operating terminals across Canada and a Shanghai-based sales office, noted the Fenway statement. The company handles more than 25,000 maritime containers from China per year.

Fenway Partners Managing Director and Co-Head of its Transportation/Logistics practice Marc Kramer stated that Fastfrate’s attractive market position in Canada was a main catalyst for this acquisition. “While Fenway has extensive investments in the transportation and logistics in the United States, we saw Fastfrate as a great opportunity to develop a strong foothold in Canada as well,” said Kramer. “Additionally, we believe that our expertise and experience in the United States can be translated into growing Fastfrate’s business in Canada. Likewise, Fastfrate’s senior management team has unique experience and insight that will help Fenway run all of our businesses better.”

In terms of what made Fastfrate a strong investment opportunity for Fenway, John Q. Anderson, Fenway Partners managing director and co-Head of its Transportation/Logistics practice, stated that Fenway was attracted to Fastfrate’s demonstrated success in growing and diversifying its business to meet the demands of its customers. “Fenway has no plans to change Fastfrate’s existing service offerings, only add to them as we help accelerate its growth plans and meet the demands of its expanding customer base.”