Covenant Transportation Group completed the acquisition of Landair Holdings of Greeneville, TN, the holding company for Landair Transport and Landair Logistics. Landair is a dedicated and for-hire truckload carrier, as well as a supplier of 3PL transportation, warehousing and logistics inventory management services.

Under the terms of the agreement, Covenant purchased 100% of Landair’s outstanding stock in exchange for approximately $83.0 million in cash. At closing, Landair also had approximately $15.5 million of debt which Covenant has refinanced. The acquisition was funded by cash on hand of approximately $45.5 million accumulated from positive operating cash flows since the end of February 2018 and approximately $53.0 million of previously unencumbered used revenue equipment financing.

“We are very pleased to welcome the entire Landair team to the Covenant family. We pursued Landair because of their proven record of growth and profitability in the dedicated and 3PL markets, their talented management team led by John Tweed and the quality and integrity of their culture represented by their co-founder, Scott Niswonger. Landair is a perfect fit with our strategy to grow in areas where we can get closer and more heavily integrated with customers,” said David R. Parker, Covenant’s chairman and CEO. “We believe the backing of [Covenant] will provide additional resources to expand Landair’s dedicated truckload operations to best meet the needs of its strong customer base, as well as improve profit margins through identified cost synergies. Additionally, Landair’s existing managed freight business is expected to immediately improve [Covenant]’s collective managed freight service offering, adding experience, human capital and important additional systems capabilities.”

Landair is expected to be immediately accretive to Covenant’s earnings. Landair Transport’s results will be reported within Covenant’s Truckload segment. Landair Logistics’ results will be reported within Covenant’s Managed Freight segment. Landair will continue to he headquartered in Greeneville, TN and its employees and customers should notice little change moving forward.

“I am excited about this combination because it will give Landair and its customers access to, and the benefit of, the comprehensive resources of CTG,” said Tweed, president of Landair, who will continue to lead Landair in his current role. “Continued growth at the pace we are experiencing requires access to the resources and support of a strong partner like [Covenant]. The alignment in company cultures should enable a smooth integration of the two well-respected organizations.”

Landair was founded in 1981 by Niswonger and Ed Sayler. It operates approximately 430 trucks and 900 trailers, as well as managing 12 distribution facilities. Landair generated approximately $121 million in total revenue for the year ended December 31, 2017. Approximately $60 million of Landair’s fiscal 2017 total revenue related to dedicated truckload operations, $41 million related to managed freight services and the remaining $20 million related to one-way truckload operations.

“Today is the start of the next chapter in the Landair story,” Niswonger said. “We are blessed to have identified a strategic buyer that was founded on faith-based principles and is committed to continued investment in our business and people.”