CRST International Inc. Acquires NAL Group

Cedar Rapids, Iowa - CRST International Inc., one of the largest privately held transportation companies in the United States, today announced the acquisition of privately held NAL Group,  headquartered in Edison, New Jersey.

Privately held NAL Group is an industry-leading final mile logistics company, servicing the U.S. and Canada.  NAL Group specializes in warehousing services, home delivery of big and bulky consumer durables, complex in-home installation and assembly services and express courier services. NAL Group’s customers are predominately high-profile retailers, most notably delivering, installing and/or assembling items such as furniture, appliances, exercise equipment and electronics.

Hugh Ekberg, president and CEO of CRST International said, “The acquisition of NAL Group complements CRST’s service offerings through expertise in final mile logistics and complex in-home installation and assembly services. CRST’s profitable growth has been built with the successful acquisition and integration of quality companies, and CRST is now one of the most diverse and complete transportation service providers in the industry. We are thrilled to be working with Matt Riordan at NAL Group and his team on this acquisition, as it will improve our capacity and capability in this strategic growth market segment and allow us to better serve our customers to accelerate our growth.”

Matt Riordan, previous president and CEO of NAL Group, will continue overseeing sales and operations.  Riordan stated, “The NAL Group team looks forward to joining the growing CRST International organization.  With NAL Group’s strong reputation and specialized service offerings, we are excited to offer our collective customers a wider range of services in more locations.”

 “NAL Group will allow CRST to enter the complex in-home installation and assembly market with existing customers as well as with an expanded customer base in the U.S. and Canada,” said Ekberg. “For CRST and NAL Group customers, it means new niche service offerings and scalable capacity not previously available. Bringing these two businesses together will deliver significant benefits to the combined customer base as well as provide rewarding career opportunities for all employees in the growing CRST enterprise.”

The NAL Group acquisition fulfills a key element of the CRST strategic growth plan. In the past several years, CRST has acquired Specialized Transportation Inc., Allied Special Products (the specialized division of North American Van Lines), BESL Transfer Company, Pegasus Transportation and Gardner Trucking Inc.