by ARCADIA, Wisc. – Ashley Furniture has entered into an agreement to purchase the West Coast fleet of Springfield, Mo.-based Wilson Logistics as part of a plan to strengthen its supply chain capabilities.
Ashley President and CEO Todd Wanek confirmed the news on Friday with Home News Now, adding that this is the company’s first logistics related acquisition.
“It is part of our plan to fix constraints in the supply chain, and trucking is a big part of that,” he said. “This is a physical fleet, and we are buying additional capability…Transportation is such a constraint right now. We have been working on this for quite a while.”
The deal, which Wanek said is expected to close by year end, is being done through Ashley Distribution Services, news sources reported.
“We are excited about this acquisition,” Wanek said, noting that the company could not reveal any specific terms including a purchase price. “It is just going to add more capability to our company to be able to deliver to our customers faster.”
Wanek said the purchase, which is adding about 50% capacity to its current fleet, will take the company just shy of 2,000 trucks and about 5,000 trailers.
“They truck all over the country, but is to really anchor up our West Coast fleet and just add more capability to our company, so that is the primary reason behind it,” Wanek added. “I think the biggest point is that this really does help us address some of the supply chain constraints we are seeing in the marketplace right now. This purchase was intended to strengthen our supply chain capability and that’s the reason we pursued it.”
