Span Alaska Transportation Acquires Pacific Alaska Freightways

AUBURN, WA and ANCHORAGE, AK--(Marketwired - Sep 17, 2015) - Span Alaska Transportation, a leading provider of freight and logistics management services for the Alaska market, today announced it has acquired Pacific Alaska Freightways. The two companies have nearly 100 years of combined experience in the logistics industry and Span Alaska will now be the largest LTL (less than truckload) freight forwarder serving Alaska. Customers of both companies will have access to expanded service offerings, as well as faster and more direct service to more locations.

After the acquisition Span Alaska will ship over 400 million pounds of freight annually to Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico, and will employ more than 220 people. In addition to its vast volume of container shipments from the Lower 48 to Alaska, the company also offers overnight service from Anchorage to Fairbanks and the Kenai Peninsula, and provides LCL (less than container load) service via barge from Seattle to Southeast Alaska.

"With the combined teams offering more experience than any other company, our customers now have more options, faster and more direct service, all while continuing their relationship with the same people that have served them for years. We look forward to this next chapter in our company's great history," said Tom Souply, CEO of Span Alaska.

Pacific Alaska Freightways (PAF) has been providing freight transportation services to Anchorage, Fairbanks, Kenai, Kodiak, and Southeast Alaska for businesses and consumers since 1961. The company operates across all modes of transportation including steamship, barge, rail, air and over the road. With established inter-modal, LTL and truckload carrier services available in the Lower 48, PAF offers seamless origin-to-destination services to its clients throughout Alaska.

Evergreen Pacific Partners is the majority owner of Span Alaska, after making its initial investment and partnering with the Landry family and management in 2014.

"The combination will enable Span Alaska to invest more significantly in markets, technology and processes which will drive higher levels of service to its customers and create growth opportunities in both the Alaska and Hawaii markets," said T.J. McGill, co-founder and managing partner of Evergreen Pacific Partners.

About Evergreen Pacific Partners
Based in Seattle, Evergreen Pacific is Washington State's largest private equity fund, currently managing two funds totaling $700 million. Evergreen's investing focus is traditional, middle-market companies in Western North America. Evergreen Pacific was co-founded by Timothy Bernardez, T. J. McGill, and Michael Nibarger. Evergreen Pacific's acquisitions and investments include Vantage Mobility International (Phoenix, Ariz.), Gene Juarez Salons & Spas (Seattle, Wash.), Western Broadband (Phoenix, Ariz.), Good Source Solutions (Carlsbad, Calif.), Haney Truck Line (Yakima, Wash.), Nuprecon (Snoqualmie, Wash.), Radiant Imaging, Inc. (Redmond, Wash.), Zemax Development Corporation (Redmond, Wash.), Thermal Dynamics (Ontario, Calif.), PAC Stainless (Seattle, Wash.), Span Alaska (Auburn, Wash.), SafeWorks (Tukwila, Wash.) and Abracon (Irvine, Calif.). More information is available at www.eppcapital.com.