Descartes strengthens last-mile with acquisition

Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in uniting logistics-intensive businesses in commerce, has acquired GreenMile, a leading provider of cloud-based mobile route execution solutions for food, beverage, and broader distribution verticals.

GreenMile’s highly scalable mobile route execution solutions have been built with unique capabilities to serve the global distribution industry. Customers benefit from a next-generation platform that incorporates machine-learning to continually improve service and travel time standards. GreenMile’s innovative solutions are used by some of the world’s largest food and beverage companies to digitize final-mile delivery processes, thereby eliminating paper from the supply chain, increasing efficiencies and improving customer satisfaction.

“GreenMile has built a great business by focusing on the unique challenges faced by retail food and beverage distribution companies,” said Andrew Roszko, EVP Commercial Operations at Descartes. “Their mobile applications are used by drivers around the world to improve their productivity and provide real-time delivery visibility to enhance customer service.

“The platform is complemented with advanced analytics and delivery performance management tools to provide managers in the field and corporate leadership with a comprehensive view of field operations. When combined with Descartes’ advanced route optimization tools, we believe it presents a compelling proposition to help distributors improve their final-mile delivery operations.”

“We continue to invest in a broader set of capabilities to help our customers across diverse industry verticals solve their final-mile challenges,” added Edward J Ryan, Descartes’ CEO. “The GreenMile combination helps us by adding a team with deep domain expertise in retail food and beverage distribution, extending our operational footprint and presence in Latin America, and adding to our community of truly global distribution companies. We’re thrilled to welcome the GreenMile employees, customers and partners into the Descartes family.”

GreenMile is headquartered in Orlando, Florida. Descartes acquired GreenMile for up-front cash consideration of US$30m (c.€25m) plus potential performance-based consideration. The maximum amount payable under the all-cash performance-based earn-out is US$10m (c. €8.5m), based on GreenMile achieving revenue-based targets over the first two years post-acquisition.