Univar Acquires Future Transfer and Bluestar Distribution
Univar News
DOWNERS GROVE, Ill. and TILLSONBURG, Ontario – October 2, 2015 – Univar Inc. (NYSE: UNVR) (“Univar”) announced today that its wholly owned subsidiary, Univar Canada Ltd. (“Univar Canada”), has acquired all of the outstanding stock of Future Transfer Co., Inc.; BlueStar Distribution Inc.; and BDI Distribution West Inc.(“Future/ BlueStar”).
Founded in 1973, Future/BlueStar specializes in logistics, warehousing, packaging and formulation services to the agriculture industry in Canada. The company has 90 employees and operates from six locations, four in Ontario and two in Manitoba.
“This acquisition positions Univar as the leader in multiple value-added services in the Canadian agriculture market,” said Univar President and Chief Executive Officer Erik Fyrwald. “Future Transfer and BlueStar Distribution bring additional expertise in multiple areas, that combined with Univar Agriculture’s capabilities, are vital to maintaining and growing relationships with suppliers, who are increasingly focused on research and are moving toward these services to support their growth.”
Univar plans to combine the Future/BlueStar businesses with Fort Storage, a Univar company that provides warehousing, logistics, and distribution services in Canada. In addition to providing the company with an immediate, national presence in the 3PL market, the acquisition enhances Univar Agriculture’s distribution network, which now includes 10 facilities in four provinces with more than 1.2 million square feet of Agrichemical Warehousing Standards Association (AWSA) warehouse space, the most in Canada.
“Over the last 35 years we’ve been working hard to live up to our mission to be the strongest link in our clients’ supply chain,” says Mike Perovich, owner of Future Transfer. “The acquisition is an opportunity to immediately have a national presence and continue to live up to our mission, and at the same time leverage the new benefits that Univar, a leading global organization, will provide to our customers, suppliers and, most importantly, our employees.”
About Univar Agriculture
Univar Agriculture provides crop protection, seed, and nutrient products and services to the cereal, oilseed, specialty crop, and horticultural markets, as well as related specific seed varieties. Univar Agriculture provides segments of the crop protection industry with storage and logistics services through its Fort Storage business. Products for vegetation management in forestry, industrial sites, and rights-of-way are provided by Univar Environmental Sciences.
About Univar Inc.
Founded in 1924, Univar is a global distributor of specialty and basic chemicals from more than 8,000 producers worldwide. Univar operates more than 700 distribution facilities throughout North America, Western Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America, supported by a global network of sales and technical professionals. With a broad portfolio of products and value-added services, and deep technical and market expertise, Univar delivers the tailored solutions customers need through one of the most extensive chemical distribution networks in the world. Univar is Chemistry DeliveredSM.