SEKO announces acquisition of GoodShip International

Chicago-based third-party logistics (3PL) services provider SEKO Logistics recently announced it made an intra-city acquisition, with the purchase of GoodShip International, a customs brokerage and compliance consultancy.

SEKO said this marks the first time in its 42-year history that the company has acquired another independent freight forwarding specialist. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 1994, GoodShip International provides various services, including customs brokerage, compliance, air and ocean freight offerings for shippers across various verticals, including aerospace, automotive, electronics, healthcare products, fast-moving consumer goods, pharma, and retail, focusing on Trans-Pacific Eastbound cargo movements.

By bringing GoodShip into the fold, SEKO said that it will help to expand the capabilities of SEKO’s Chicago Gateway, which provides support for interational shippers in the form of offering a new level of customs brokerage and compliance services. The company noted that it plans to announce news related to the additional expansion of its Midwest operations in the second quarter of this year.  

SEKO President and CEO James Gagne told LM that there various drivers for acquiring GoodShip.

“We have been making strategic investments and partnerships in our core geographies including the United States, Greater China, United Kingdom, Mexico and Germany recently,” he said. “For our U.S. strategic investments, Chicago is where we originally started in 1976, but we needed to scale our gateway operations faster to keep ahead of client growing demands for value-added forwarding and omni-channel logistics growth, and we’ll continue to invest in Chicago to expand on our facilities and white glove services.”

As for what GoodShip brings to the table for SEKO, Gagne pointed to its level of customs brokerage and consulting services that immediately increases SEKO’s capabilities in Chicago and the Midwest, while also allowing SEKO to offer these complementary services to its existing SEKO clients. And he also noted that SEKO is excited to offer its white glove, domestic forwarding, warehousing and other SEKO complementary services to GoodShip clients as well.  

Gagne also cited the competitive advantages of this acquisition from a SEKO perspective.

“We immediately will see an increased competitive advantage in the Chicago market with enhanced value-added freight forwarding and customs brokerage offerings to shippers that we did not have before, and we now be able to offer all of our clients their expertise with an enhanced level of service and support,” he said. “We are excited to engage with GoodShip clients as well with regards to our global network of SEKO facilities, Omni-Channel, White Glove and other logistics solutions.”   

GoodShip President Ryan Villiard said in a statement that GoodShip is genuinely excited by SEKO’s ambition and the commensurate pace at which it plans to grow.

“We can clearly see how we fit into SEKO’s business to support its growing portfolio of value-added forwarding solutions,” he said. “Most significantly, GoodShip’s clients will now have access to the resources and expertise of a single logistics company that possesses a worldwide footprint, key technology differentiators, and award-winning forwarding, omni-channel, cross-border eCommerce, and White Glove services. This is a great move for our company, our employees and customers.”