Roadrunner Transportation Systems has acquired all of the outstanding stock of truckload carrier Bruenger Trucking, Wichita, Kan., for approximately $10.6 million, plus an earn-out capped at $3 million.


Bruenger transports primarily refrigerated product throughout the United States, using a combination of independent contractors and company-owned equipment. The acquisition was financed with borrowings under Roadrunner's amended and expanded credit facility.

"The acquisition of Bruenger broadens our geographic coverage and expands our capacity network. Bruenger's Midwest presence and East/West traffic will also enable us to more effectively cross-sell our truckload services," said Mark DiBlasi, president and CEO of Roadrunner.

During calendar year 2010, Bruenger generated approximately $23 million in revenues and approximately $3.5 million of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The earn-out portion of the purchase price is fully accrued and is based upon Bruenger's operations attaining certain growth and performance objectives over the next 3.5 years. The base threshold for any earnout amount to be paid is $2.1 million of annual operating income.

Bruenger has 100 company-owned tractors (while owner-operators provide an additional 45-50) and 216 trailers (about 80 percent of the trailers are refrigerated).

David Ross, transportation analyst at Stifel Nicolaus, notes that Bruenger's margins are better than the truckload average. While this is more asset-based than the traditional Roadrunner deal, the company believes that securing capacity should help its overall asset-light offering in a capacity crunch scenario (vs. a traditional non-asset-based broker), Ross explains. In addition, Bruenger operates in primarily in east-west lanes, expanding on the current East Coast focus of Roadrunner's TL segment.