Celadon Group Sells Flatbed Division to ATF

July 1, 2001
Truckload carrier Celadon Group Inc has sold Cheetah Transportation, its flatbed division, to American Trans-Freight LLC (ATF) of Morrisville PA. The

Truckload carrier Celadon Group Inc has sold Cheetah Transportation, its flatbed division, to American Trans-Freight LLC (ATF) of Morrisville PA. The sale represents all of the company's flatbed truckload business, Celadon said, though it will still act as an agent to ATF on any future flatbed TL business.

Celadon said it would realize about $6 million in net proceeds as a result of the sale. Associated with the transaction, Celadon will incur a non-cash write-off of some $2 million after taxes.

“Cheetah represented approximately 8% of total revenue and was not strategic to the future of the company, which is primarily a van TL business,” said Steve Russell, Celadon chairman and chief executive officer. “We had acquired Cheetah in June 1995 and, with the sale, achieved an overall average annual return of approximately 15%.”

Celadon also said it expects its trucking activities to demonstrate results substantially better than the March quarter, said Dave Shatto, executive vice-president-operations.

“Although weakness in the economy continues to impact our utilization, higher seated count, improved fuel consumption, and the continued growth of our business between the United States and Mexico have accounted for the gains compared with the March quarter,” he said.

The company said its Internet venture, TruckersB2B, turned profitable in April and is now expected to be consistently profitable. Revenue for the June quarter is projected to be around $1.4 million, up about 25% from the March quarter.