UPS plans to acquire Ireland-based Nightline Logistics Group

UPS today announced that it plans to acquire Sligo, Ireland-based Nightline Logistics Group, an express delivery and logistics services provider.

Financial terms were not made public, with UPS saying that terms of the acquisition were not disclosed and the deal is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval.

Nightline develops and deploys innovative consumer focused services for its customers in Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Great Britain, as well as its business-to-business services, and has been in business for 25 years, UPS said. Its hallmark offering, Parcel Motel, features a “virtual address,” which enables customers to manage online shopping deliveries more easily, with UPS explaining it is akin to its UPS Access Point Lockers, creating potential for what it called network synergies. 

UPS Director of Corporate Public Relations Glenn Zaccara told LM that UPS had been in talks with Nightline, regarding this acquisition for a few months leading up to today’s announcement.

“UPS first entered Europe in 1976 when it established domestic operations in Germany,” he said. “UPS has since developed a comprehensive European service portfolio, combining local expertise in each market with UPS’s international strength and high quality standards. UPS first entered the Irish market in 1988 through a joint venture with Walsh Western Express, which UPS acquired in 1989. The acquisition of Nightline builds on prior acquisitions that provided immediate, tangible portfolio expansion.  In this case specific to Ireland, the acquisition will provide domestic, business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) portfolio expansion.”  

UPS currently provides small package and supply chain services for shippers in Ireland, which are comprised of ground, air, and ocean freight offerings. And it also operates gateway functions at the Dublin and Shannon airports. This acquisition will also add more ground sorting capacity and vehicles for UPS throughout Ireland.

As for the benefits Nightline brings to UPS, Zaccara said that Nightline provides UPS with immediate capabilities to support import and export growth through improved time in transit and other network efficiencies. Nightline’s Parcel Motel with virtual U.K. address and Parcel Pilot products enable B2C portfolio expansion for UPS, coupled with Nightline being perceived as a leader and expert in the Irish domestic market.

“UPS will now be positioned better in Ireland, an important European market,” he said. “This acquisition will help UPS increase our network, footprint and capabilities to service our customers. This acquisition also expands UPS’s customer-facing technology portfolio. This acquisition, once approved by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Ireland, will immediately position UPS as one of the top local shippers in the country and offer customers a wider array of both domestic and cross-border services.”

Nightline Co-Founder and CEO John Tuohy said in a statement that Nightline has grown to be one of Ireland’s largest privately-owned parcel delivery, freight, and logistics companies over the last 25 years.

“As we celebrate over two decades in business, this is the right time in the company’s evolution to join the world’s largest parcel delivery company – one with a reputation for taking care of its people and a culture that aligns well with our own. Our customers across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain will benefit from an even wider reach, enjoying direct connectivity to global export markets, and it will be an important milestone in the company’s growth into the future.”

This deal is the most recent example of UPS’s ongoing commitment to its European business and operations.

In January, it acquired U.K.-based Freightex, a provider of truckload, less-than-truckload, specialized, and refrigerated over-the-road services in a move geared to help immediately establish the company’s presence in the growing U.K. and European third-partly logistics (3PL) over-the-road brokerage transportation market, while also establishing a new global and regional company growth platform from an established base of carriers and customers. 

And in 2014, it announced its plan to invest $2 billion into its European logistics network and infrastructure by 2020.