Dive Brief:
- Estes Express Lines has reopened yet another Yellow Corp. terminal, this time in Olive Branch, Mississippi, according to a LinkedIn post last week.
- The 21-acre site, purchased for more than $22 million in December 2023, adds 80 doors, 29,375 square feet of dock space and nearly 8,000 square feet of office space to the LTL carrier’s network.
- Located near the Tennessee state line, the facility is an end-of-the-line, city operations-only terminal that will also create pickup-and-delivery capacity for Memphis 135, District Operations Manager Tony Oha said in the post.
Dive Insight:
Estes has reopened several former Yellow terminals in recent months, including locations in Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Texas, Vermont and Wisconsin.
“This year, our ability to not only add properties to our network, but for Kevin Fitz and his facilities maintenance team to quickly get them up to Estes standards has been a testament to all the collective efforts of Team Estes,” said Webb Estes, president and COO, in a December news release.
In 2023, the Richmond, Virginia-based carrier was the stalking-horse bidder in Yellow’s bankruptcy auction and ultimately acquired 24 properties for $248.7 million that year, primarily across the Midwest and East Coast. The company later purchased an additional 11 owned and leased Yellow sites for $142.7 million in December 2024.
The Olive Branch, Mississippi, terminal was the fourth most-expensive acquisition for Estes. The priciest sites were in Indianapolis; Wheeling, Illinois; and Cinnaminson, New Jersey. Estes now has three locations in Mississippi including in the Tupelo and Jackson areas, according to its website.
In related news, Estes last month announced the opening of its relocated terminal in South Bend, Indiana — another facility previously owned by Yellow — which added 58 doors in the Crossroads State. As of Dec. 30, Estes had a total of 12,028 doors, up 704 doors since Jan. 1, 2024, a 6.2% year-over-year increase.
