Charthouse Holdings, a supply chain solutions company in St. Clair Shores has purchased Pronto Freight Ways in Taylor. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Pronto provides one-stop service for time-sensitive and mission-critical air freight, local cartage, drayage, and warehousing. It has approximately 100 employees and a second location in Chicago. The company also offers daily consolidation service between Detroit Metropolitan Airport and Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
Old National Bank, headquartered in Evansville, Ind. and Chicago, served as Charthouse’s senior lender. Charter Growth Capital Fund II of Grand Rapids co-invested in the transaction.
“We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of Pronto and officially welcome our new colleagues to the Charthouse family,” says Jeff Rogers, CEO of Charthouse. “Pronto is an ideal partner for us. Our experience is highly complementary with Pronto’s service offering. We also look forward to growing the platform by identifying other potential partners in adjacent markets that fit with our strategy.”
Rogers has more than 35 years of experience in transportation and logistics. He previously served as CEO of Universal Logistics Holdings Inc. Before Universal, Rogers was president of YRC Freight and USF Holland. Edwin Lukas and Gary N. Lewis serve as co-chairs of Charthouse.
“The sale to Charthouse opens an exciting new chapter in our mission to provide the highest level of service to our customers,” says Paul Wozniak, founder of Pronto, who will continue to serve as its president. “Charthouse’s experience and network will provide us access to capital, relationships, and enhanced technology, all of which will help scale our business and diversify our services.”
Lukas states, “The closing of this transaction marks Charthouse’s most important step to date toward executing its strategy of building a specialized provider of services that are critical to the uninterrupted operations of our customers. Pronto has a terrific corporate culture, and their employees and customers will be in good hands under Jeff and Paul’s shared leadership. We are truly excited about this milestone for Charthouse.”
Taft Stettinius & Hollister acted as legal advisor to Charthouse. Kerr, Russell, and Weber represented Pronto. Varnum represented Old National Bank, and Bodman served as legal counsel to Charter Growth Capital.
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