Brambles Limited, parent company of leading pooling services provider CHEP, has today announced its proposed acquisition of IFCO Systems NV, an international logistics service provider and a leader in the reusable plastic container (RPC) industry worldwide.
The transaction is subject to merger control clearance in the USA and certain European countries.
CHEP EMEA Group President Dolph Westerbos said: "IFCO represents a unique growth opportunity for Brambles to enhance its pooling solutions offering to customers worldwide with a substantial acquisition in two of its key business areas, RPCs and pallets.
"The combined entity will seek to expand geographically alongside customers and develop a wider range of innovative products and services to help growers, other food producers and retailers provide consumers with the freshest products while achieving leaner and greener supply chains."
IFCO operates a pool of 112 million RPCs, used primarily to transport fresh produce from producers to grocery retailers. Its head office is in Amsterdam and its operations are headquartered in Pullach, Germany; Houston, Texas; and Tampa, Florida. It has RPC operations across Europe and the USA and in South America. In the USA, IFCO provides a national network of pallet management services, which sort, repair and reissue approximately 200 million pallets a year. IFCO employs approximately 4,000 people, operating in 23 countries.
Brambles CEO Tom Gorman said: "The purchase of IFCO represents a unique opportunity for Brambles to enhance its position as a leading global pooling solutions provider and acquire operations with a strong growth profile. IFCO is a natural fit with Brambles' existing RPC and pallet businesses and will allow us to continue to deliver on our strategy of diversifying our revenue base by product platform, geography and customer type."
Completion of the transaction is subject to merger control clearance in the USA and certain European countries. Brambles anticipates merger control clearance will complete within nine months. Brambles and IFCO will remain separate entities and will continue to operate as separate companies until such clearance is obtained.
Once approved, the transaction would create an entity with sales revenue of approximately US$5 billion, of which more than US$4 billion would come from pooling and pallet services. The Brambles group would have more than 16,000 employees, working in 49 countries across six continents.