Dive Brief:
- Saia increased its net capital expenditures to $155 million in the first half of the year, primarily through real estate acquisitions, and expects to spend up to $500 million for the year, according to a July 27 earnings filing.
- The LTL carrier and 3PL increased its net cash investments by 55% for H1 YoY as it seeks to expand its footprint and add more locations to key markets.
- Saia sees opportunities in an industrial real estate market that has cooled since the frenzy of the past few years, President and CEO Fritz Holzgrefe said during a Q2 earnings call. “We're focused on expanding our footprint,” he said.
Dive Insight:
Terminal acquisitions and expansions are helping Saia expand, and Holzgrefe noted in the latest earnings call that more opportunities are coming as regional players exit.
Those additions involve a multi-pronged approach. A Saia spokesperson told Transport Dive that it's looking to upgrade its network by growing terminals, relocating terminals to larger facilities or better locations, and switching from leased to owned facilities.
The company, seeking to add 10 to 15 terminals each year, met a halfway mark of that goal in H1 with five new additions. Shortly after, a terminal addition near Binghamton, New York announced Aug. 1 brought its total to 182 terminals, and an additional seven to 10 are slated to open this year, the company said in a news release.
“We've got a lot of real estate deals in the pipeline,” Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Doug Col said on the July 27 Q2 earnings call. Col noted Saia purchased some land already this year, is hoping to close additional terminal deals this year and is preparing for activity next year.
Of the $500 million in investments slated for this year, about half involve equipment, with the rest split between real estate and technology.
Several other firms have sought to increase terminal counts this year, including Old Dominion, Knight-Swift and XPO Logistics. Some, such as Pitt Ohio, have relied on M&A to do so.
But others have consolidated their footprints. Yellow Corp. CEO Darren Hawkins noted in the company’s Q2 earnings call Aug. 3 that it will lower the firm’s number of terminals from 315 to 307 in the next few weeks and eventually the 300 range by the end of this year.
That’s part of a transition from four operating company networks to a super regional service called One Yellow.
“Once we complete the transformation to One Yellow, we expect improved asset utilization, enhance network efficiencies, cost savings and added capacity without the need to add new terminals, we will be operating as a modernized super regional carrier that will provide our customers with an all in one solution,” Hawkins said.
