TFI International has acquired Vedder Transportation Group, a British Columbia-based tanker carrier that helped pioneer the use of tank trucks to haul food-grade liquids and dry-bulk commodities in Western Canada, TFI announced last week.
The terms were not disclosed.
Vedder has more than 155 tractors and nearly 300 trailing units, a food grade wash rack, railcar transloading and warehousing, as well as maintenance and repair facilities, according to TFI. The business generates more than $58 million in annual revenue.
President Fred Zweep and the Vedder team will join TFI’s Specialized Truckload business segment.
The acquisition expands TFI’s tank truck network, which serves Eastern Canada, to the western part of the country, where Vedder has operated since 1956, TFI Chairman, President and CEO Alain Bédard said in a statement.
“With the acquisition of Vedder, we add the premier provider of such services in Western Canada along with a network of strategically located facilities, making TFI the premier Canadian coast-to-coast provider of food grade tank truck transportation services,” Bédard said.
The acquisition is TFI’s ninth of 2023 and its second in the back half of the year.
The Montreal-based company last month completed its previously announced acquisition of JHT Holdings.
Its other M&A deals through eight months of the year included Axsun Group, a Canada-based intermodal and freight brokerage provider, and a pair of LTL carriers, Siemens Transportation Group and Hot Line Freight Systems.
After spending $80 million on M&A in Q1, the carrier projected another $200 million to $300 million in smaller-to-midsized deals — with a major acquisition potentially on the way early next year.
“This is not going to be a major year for M&A, in ‘23,” Bédard said on a Q2 earnings call. “But we're getting ready for '24.”
