Panic Transportnonumberplate

Investment firm Kinaxia is on the hunt for further acquisitions following the purchase of Palletline member Panic Transport (Contracts).

It is its sixth acquisition in five years and the first paid for from a war chest of £25m, secured in January last year.

The purchase of Rugby-based Panic Transport (Contracts) last month means Kinaxia now has four Palletline members in its stable – the others being William Kirk, Foulger Transport, and Lambert Bros.

Motortansport.co.uk understands Kinaxia made a bid for ABE (Ledbury) earlier this year, which ultimately saw its network, Palletline, acquire the business. Kinaxia also owns Pallet-force member Bay Freight and Fortec member NC Cammack & Son.

The six companies are held by Kinaxia Transport and Warehousing, a subsidiary of Kinaxia, trading as Kinaxia Logistics. The firm was set up in 2012 by Peter Fields and Graham Norfolk, the latter the founder of corporate finance firm Acorn Capital Partners.

The acquisition of Panic Transport (Contracts) has resulted in MD Kevin Johnson, who held a majority stake in the company, joining the board of Kinaxia Transport and Warehousing. Johnson continues to oversee Panic Transport (Contracts)’s operations.

Kinaxia has made no secret of its acquisition plans. On its website, it states it is targeting medium-sized, growing, profitable, privately-owned companies as part of wider plans to build a national haulage and warehousing group.

The company, based at William Kirk’s headquarters in Macclesfield, has pledged to keep the local identity of the haulage firms it buys while introducing operating efficiencies across the board.

Kinaxia’s latest annual results to 31 December 2015 reveal the firm bought Foulger Transport for £7.2m and Lambert Brothers for £11.4m in March 2015.

Palletline was unavailable for comment.

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