Pacer expands services with RFI acquisition

Walnut Creek, California-based Pacer International can now add freight forwarding, customs-brokerage and international shipping services to its freight distribution menu, with its acquisition of New York-based RFI Group Inc., a nonasset-based logistics business.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

A freight-forwarding and customs-brokerage firm that also has ocean-transportation brokerage capabilities, RFI recorded revenues of $113 million for the fiscal year ending Dec. 31, 1999.

Pacer's revenues for the 12-month period ending Sept. 30, exceed $1.4 billion on a pro forma basis, including acquisitions to date.

Don Orris, Pacer's chairman and chief executive officer, said that Pacer's menu of freight-distribution services is expanding to include international-trade related services for the first time, as a result of this acquisition.

RFI uses a personal-computer-based forwarding system that is integrated with the systems of U.S. Customs.

With offices in the U.S. and Europe and approximately 185 employees, the RFI senior-management group intends to remain involved in running the business, Orris said.

Pacer offers intermodal, trucking, warehousing, consolidation and other logistics services through a single point, Pacer Logistics. Pacer also has what it touts as the logistics industry's most extensive double-stack rail system for distributing containerized freight, Pacer Stacktrain, which is a wholesale-market operation.

Edited by Kathe Archibald, Assistant Editor, Logistics Online. Reach her at karchibald@verticalnet.com.