A group of investors is proposing to buy Consolidated Freightways Corp. and return the company's trucks to the nation's highways by Nov. 1,
according to a story this week in the Fort Worth Star Telegram.
Rollin' International, a company created specifically to make the purchase, has offered $500 million for the 73-year-old trucking company, including its airfreight division, said spokesman Frank Snell.
Snell would not identify the investors behind Rollin' International, but said business people from Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas, represent about 40% of the group, with the rest coming from investors elsewhere in the United States and Mexico.
"We believe that the company, properly managed, will be a profitable company," Snell said. "Our objective is to get operations back, get trucks on the road in some form or fashion by Nov. 1."
Consolidated Freightways filed for bankruptcy protection last month and immediately fired the bulk of its 15,500 workers.
Vancouver, Wash.-based Consolidated billed itself as the nation's third largest less-than-truckload carrier. It has 350 terminals and 30,000 trucks in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Snell said Rollin' International's representatives met last weekend with union officials to reach a tentative deal that would include rehiring some Teamsters, with pay cuts and changes in work rules.
Those concessions could save Consolidated as much as $110 million a year if the investors succeed in reviving its business, Snell said.
Snell said Rollin' International's acquisition bid contains two potential prices -- less than $500 million for the status quo and more than $500 million if the company has resumed some operations by the time of purchase.
He intended to make that pitch Wednesday to Consolidated's creditors, who will eventually make a recommendation to the court overseeing the company's bankruptcy.