NEW YORK, December 18, 2008 — Unified Logistics Holdings, LLC (www.unifiedlogistics.com), formed by ACI Capital (www.acicapital.com), a New York-based private equity investment firm, in conjunction with Geoffrey Davis, an experienced logistics industry executive formerly with ES3, Penske, and TNT Logistics and the founding business owners announced a partnership with Benchmark Logistics (www.benchmark-logistics.com) and Silk Road Transport (www.silkroadtrans.com). Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Unified Logistics is a specialized logistics company focused primarily on the handling, transport and delivery of hard-to-deliver freight, particularly highly urgent and/or over-dimensional freight. John Flick, formerly with C&S Wholesale Grocers, ES3 and Chiquita is the CFO.
Unified Logistics will serve as a platform for partnering with highly specialized logistics providers as well. Benchmark provides time-critical and over-dimensional transportation services to oil and gas industry customers, including drilling, exploration and production, service and rig companies. Silk Road is the leading transporter of mass transit transportation vehicles in North America with a growing presence in delivering wind power equipment.
Geoff Davis commented, "We are excited about our partnership with Benchmark Logistics and look forward to building Unified into the premier logistics provider of urgent and over-dimensional freight. Working with ACI Capital, we expect to develop Unified into a leading provider of engineered time-critical, over-dimensional, and differentiated transportation services. We will focus on transporting the most difficult freight with the most complex challenges." Mr. Davis additionally commented that "Benchmark and Silk Road represent two highly regarded industry leaders in their respective specialties. Unified looks forward to assisting the existing management teams in expanding each company’s service reach."
Jane Karlsten, a co-founder of Silk Road, remarked, "We are very excited to bring on Unified and ACI Capital as partners to help us grow this business. Geoff Davis and his team at Unified bring a wealth of logistics industry experience and will provide us with the resources necessary to continue the growth of our company. ACI Capital has a proven record of successfully growing middle-market businesses, and I am confident they can also make a positive impact at Silk Road."
"We are delighted to invest with Geoff and his Unified Logistics team and to become partners with the managers who founded each of Silk Road and Benchmark", said Hunter Reisner, Managing Director of ACI Capital. "This transaction typifies our strategy of investing in growth-oriented companies that have leading market positions, excellent relationships and reputations with their customers and strong, knowledgeable management teams. In addition, ACI Capital has a long history of partnering with entrepreneurs to help them grow their companies. We are focused on working with Geoff and his team to build Unified Logistics, growing the Benchmark and Silk Road businesses as well as acquiring and unifying other premier specialized logistics providers."
