Schneider Logistics has announced plans to sell its freight forwarding and customs house brokerage business in the U.S. and China to Norbert Dentressangle, a European transportation, logistics and freight forwarding company based in Lyon, France.


The transaction, which is expected to be final by Oct. 1, 2010, does not affect Schneider Logistics' other international supply chain services, including transloading, warehousing, distribution, port dray services, inland logistics management, supply chain management, brokerage or domestic China transportation services.

The sale will involve no job losses, as all Schneider freight forwarding and customs house brokerage employees will go to Norbert Dentressangle. The sale encompasses seven locations in the U.S., including San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Atlanta, New York and Chicago, and two locations in China, Tianjin and Shanghai.

Norbert Dentressangle, founded in 1979, has 27,000 employees throughout 355 locations in 17 countries. The company consists of 6,900 tractors and 8,600 trailers, as well as 5.3 million square feet of warehouse space. According to Schneider CEO and President Chris Lofgren, the expertise of Schneider's freight forwarding and customs house brokerage team will enable Norbert Dentressangle to grow its existing business and leverage its European customer base to generate new business in the U.S. for themselves as well as Schneider's current customers.

"As we continue to refine our enterprise strategy, it has become clear that while freight forwarding and customs brokerage is an exciting business with significant potential, it is not part of the strategic focus on our core truckload, logistics and intermodal services," Lofgren said. "When making strategic decisions like this, our guiding principle is that our people deserve to be aligned with a company that shares our core values and plans to invest in the people, technology and resources to grow the business. The freight forwarding and customs brokerage associates will have great opportunities for growth and success with Norbert Dentressangle."