A private equity firm-owned motor carrier and its affiliates have filed for bankruptcy protection in the state of Florida.
On September 27, Cold Carriers Logistics LLC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida, according to a report from Bloomberg Law.
Cold Carrier’s affiliated trucking companies — including Interide Transport, Gantt Trucking, Blue Sky Logistics, and Sunco Trucking — were also listed in the bankruptcy filings. These midsize regional carriers were acquired by Cold Carriers and consolidated into a single company.
Hundreds of trucks are affected by the bankruptcy filings. According to the FMCSA’s SAFER website, Gantt Trucking operates 102 trucks, Interide Transport operates 136 trucks, and Sunco Trucking operates 159 trucks. Blue Sky Logistics operates about 30 trucks.
The bankruptcy protection will allow the company and affiliates to continue to operate for the time being.
Cold Carrier is owned by Orlando, Florida-based private equity firm KJM Capital.
KJM Managing Director Ken Meister described the company’s acquisition strategy in a 2018 interview with Business View Magazine: “… I came to understand that there are a lot of mid-sized, family-owned companies that have not invested in technology for efficiencies, processes, financial reporting, and accounting functions but still have an instinctively well-run business where they know the industry and have been successful for decades. We believed that if we got involved, we could bring our expertise in finance and technology to improve and grow the business through those infrastructure investments.”
The bankruptcy filings list the company assets and liabilities at between $10 and $50 million.
According to the company website, Cold Carriers “specializes in moving temperature-controlled freight and other protected cargoes for customers throughout the continental United States.”