Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

RK Logistics acquired by private equity group

AOI Capital says e-commerce 3PLs are “highly attractive” to investors

RK Logistics Screen Shot 2022-04-15 at 4.20.08 PM.png

The California third party logistics provider (3PL) RK Logistics Group said today it has been acquired by a private equity firm which says hot growth in the e-commerce sector makes 3PLs “highly attractive” to investors.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but RK’s founder, chairman, and namesake, Rod Kalune, has now retired. The firm’s new owner, Miami-based AOI Capital, says it will retain the remainder of the current RK Logistics management team.


According to the firm, Kalune started the company over 35 years ago with a handful of employees, one warehouse, and several trucks. The company has since grown steadily, and Fremont, California-based RK today provides warehousing, e-commerce fulfillment, and supply chain management services. It operates facilities in Newark, Fremont, and Hayward, California, spanning some one million square feet of warehousing and distribution capacity and employing over 300 associates and managers.

In a statement, AOI Capital said the RK Logistics acquisition marks an expansion of its participation in third-party logistics services, a move that was driven by surging demand for quality warehousing, distribution, and supply chain management capabilities, particularly among Silicon Valley manufacturing, industrial, retail, and e-commerce fulfillment businesses.

The Latest

More Stories

David Scheffrahn of Ocado Intelligent Automation

InPerson interview: David Scheffrahn of Ocado Intelligent Automation

David Scheffrahn is the North American vice president of sales at Ocado Intelligent Automation, a part of the technology specialist Ocado Group. Although he began his career focusing on robotic solutions for semiconductor, electronics, and automotive manufacturers, Scheffrahn eventually moved on to the logistics sector, where he worked at Rethink Robotics, Seegrid, Plus One Robotics, and Dexterity before joining Ocado in 2023. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas.

Q: How would you describe the current state of the automation industry?

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Trucking industry experiences record-high congestion costs

Trucking industry experiences record-high congestion costs

Congestion on U.S. highways is costing the trucking industry big, according to research from the American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI), released today.

The group found that traffic congestion on U.S. highways added $108.8 billion in costs to the trucking industry in 2022, a record high. The information comes from ATRI’s Cost of Congestion study, which is part of the organization’s ongoing highway performance measurement research.

Keep ReadingShow less

From pingpong diplomacy to supply chain diplomacy?

There’s a photo from 1971 that John Kent, professor of supply chain management at the University of Arkansas, likes to show. It’s of a shaggy-haired 18-year-old named Glenn Cowan grinning at three-time world table tennis champion Zhuang Zedong, while holding a silk tapestry Zhuang had just given him. Cowan was a member of the U.S. table tennis team who participated in the 1971 World Table Tennis Championships in Nagoya, Japan. Story has it that one morning, he overslept and missed his bus to the tournament and had to hitch a ride with the Chinese national team and met and connected with Zhuang.

Cowan and Zhuang’s interaction led to an invitation for the U.S. team to visit China. At the time, the two countries were just beginning to emerge from a 20-year period of decidedly frosty relations, strict travel bans, and trade restrictions. The highly publicized trip signaled a willingness on both sides to renew relations and launched the term “pingpong diplomacy.”

Keep ReadingShow less
forklift driving through warehouse

Hyster-Yale to expand domestic manufacturing

Hyster-Yale Materials Handling today announced its plans to fulfill the domestic manufacturing requirements of the Build America, Buy America (BABA) Act for certain portions of its lineup of forklift trucks and container handling equipment.

That means the Greenville, North Carolina-based company now plans to expand its existing American manufacturing with a targeted set of high-capacity models, including electric options, that align with the needs of infrastructure projects subject to BABA requirements. The company’s plans include determining the optimal production location in the United States, strategically expanding sourcing agreements to meet local material requirements, and further developing electric power options for high-capacity equipment.

Keep ReadingShow less
map of truck routes in US

California moves a step closer to requiring EV sales only by 2035

Federal regulators today gave California a green light to tackle the remaining steps to finalize its plan to gradually shift new car sales in the state by 2035 to only zero-emissions models — meaning battery-electric, hydrogen fuel cell, and plug-in hybrid cars — known as the Advanced Clean Cars II Rule.

In a separate move, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) also gave its approval for the state to advance its Heavy-Duty Omnibus Rule, which is crafted to significantly reduce smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from new heavy-duty, diesel-powered trucks.

Keep ReadingShow less