Panalpina will acquire the Argentinian company Newport Cargo subject to regulatory conditions after the two two companies reached an agreement yesterday (13 June).
Headquartered in the centre of Buenos Aires and with offices at the Ezeiza International Airport, Newport Cargo handles 24,000 tonnes of air freight exports per year. No financial details were revealed about the deal.
Newport Cargo exports fish and berries to the US, where the company has a strong customer base and an office in Miami, while Panalpina traditionally imports high tech and consumer goods into Argentina.
The cargo flows from South America northbound can be connected with or integrated in the unique Panalpina Charter Network with its gateway in Huntsville, Alabama.
Panalpina chief executive officer (CEO), Stefan Karlen said: “Panalpina’s perishables activities originated in Latin America, which is one of the world’s high-production regions for fresh produce. By acquiring Newport Cargo, we are not only gaining control over Argentinian perishables exports, but from neighboring countries too.
“Fish, fruit, and seeds for example, are trucked from various regions across the border to Argentina and flown out of Buenos Aires. So with this acquisition we are expanding our perishables footprint in an entire region and again strengthening our global end-to-end capabilities for perishables.”
Newport Cargo CEO, Roberto Fernandez said his company had built “very strong relationships” over the last 40 years with customers and airlines, and developed a “very broad perishables expertise” and a successful niche business with live animals.
He added: “We can bring this expertise into Panalpina’s global network and benefit from established structures and processes that will upgrade our service offering and enable sustainable growth, also in the future,” says Roberto Fernandez, CEO and majority shareholder of Newport Cargo.”
Newport Cargo was founded in 1978 and is one of Argentina’s market leaders in air freight exports for the past 30 years, is owned by the CEO, the CFO Jose Gancedo and the CCO Federico Calvo. The company’s 42 staff, who serve 150 customers, and the 60 employees of Panalpina Argentina will be joined under one roof in Buenos Aires.
Once the deal is closed, Calvo will join Panalpina and be responsible for the company’s air freight operations in Argentina. He will be accompanied by Fernando Loureiro in the perishables business.
“Soon our workforce in Argentina will almost double and we are very excited to get the top-notch concentrated perishables and equine knowledge of our new colleagues at Newport Cargo on board,” said Panalpina’s managing director for Argentina and Uruguay, Laurent Riesen.
By 2020 under the umbrella of the Panalpina Perishables Network, the forwarder aims to be the preferred global supplier of perishables logistics, offering customers in both origin and destination countries complete end-to-end solutions on a global scale.
The company’s perishables activities originated in Latin America and were then extended to Europe and Africa. The Panalpina Perishables Network currently spans 25 key countries.
