Aust growth for Mainfreight

Freight and logistics company Mainfreight will purchase the Express division of South Australian-based transportation company K&S Corporation.

The A$9.4m acquisition will yield Mainfreight major urban-centre terminal facilities in Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney, and Ballarat as well as a fleet of 186 pickup and delivery vehicle and forklifts and 425 extra staff from April 3 next year.

K&S Express - with a current turnover of $A66 million will be amalgamated into Mainfreight Australia at that time and provide a less-than-container-load service mirroring Mainfreight's similar business in New Zealand.

Mainfreight management said in a statement that organic growth had not been enough to ensure the company's Australian domestic expansion kept pace with growth in the New Zealand or international operations.

Speaking from Melbourne, Mainfreight Holdings Managing Director Chris Dunphy said the deal would help take the costs out of the company's Australian distribution division, which was still running at a substantial loss in the first half of the current fiscal year.

"The move is absolutely opportunist like all our deals - it happened to come along at the right time and fits perfectly with our overall strategy to increase market share in Australia."