SalSon Logistics, a Newark, New Jersey-based provider of warehousing and distribution, drayage, chassis management, transloading, store delivery, and other logistics services, is in talks with a few potential targets, said CEO Jason Fisk.

The Sun Capital Partners-backed group has looked at many M&A possibilities recently, said Fisk. It is generally pursuing acquisitions opportunistically, as it has the infrastructure, assets, and talent in place to build much of its business organically, but it would consider buying targets with strong customer or talent synergies, he added.

SalSon is mainly looking at tuck-ins with revenue in the USD 20m to USD 50m range, said Fisk, though he added that it has come across potential targets with as much as USD 50m in EBITDA. It is not likely to pay more than mid-single-digit EBITDA multiples for tuck-ins, he noted.

Many of SalSon’s customers are in the consumer space, but Fisk said it could consider growing its presence in the e-commerce space, potentially through M&A.

The company is very interested in Mexico, Fisk noted. He mentioned that one of its customers imports goods from Mexico to Texas, where they travel from Dallas through Kansas City and into Chicago–three key areas for the company.

SalSon would consider buying both targets based in Mexico or with a significant customer base there, the CEO added. It would also be willing to build density in any of its locations where customers are seeing demand.

In June 2021, SalSon entered into an agreement to be acquired for around USD 90m by Transportation and Logistics Systems, an e-commerce fulfillment services provider. By that September, the agreement for the prospective deal had expired. According to the initial announcement about the agreement, SalSon then generated annual sales of around USD 100m.

Fisk said SalSon’s revenue has “more than doubled” since 2021, declining to elaborate.

Last week, the company, whose largest operations are in the major port areas of Newark and Long Beach, California, announced it added new locations across the West Coast, Midwest, and Southern US—including in California; Seattle and Tacoma, Washington; Chicago; Houston; and Mobile, Alabama. It also expanded its presence in Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; and Norfolk, Virginia.

The deal partnered SalSon with “a network of companies with a vision of building a national platform to service major importers and retailers around the country,” according to the announcement.

The company’s national platform will prevent its customers from having to rely on several small carriers in each market where they operate. For instance, one customer came to SalSon for help with its California drayage business as it was concerned about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and sustainability matters. In turn, SalSon built a sustainability solution for a separate part of the customer’s supply chain regarding store deliveries, in a new Midwest geography, Fisk explained.

The company has spoken to William Blair and other advisory firms frequently but does not have any one firm on retainer, said Fisk. It uses Morgan Lewis & Bockius, among other firms, for legal purposes and Windes for accounting, he added.

SalSon also operates in Bakersfield, Gardena, Inland Empire, and Oakland, California; Atlanta; Indianapolis; Edison, New Jersey; Fishkill, New York; Pittsburgh; Dallas; and Miami, according to its website. It provides fleet location, fleet maintenance, and import/export services, among others. It has a fleet of 1,500 trailers.

Its Newark headquarters house a one-million square-foot facility that operates 24/7 and ships around 2,000 containers weekly; handles high-speed shipments as well as long-term storage of goods; scans products along their entire route from the facility to the final delivery location; and helps drivers with compliance requirements, among other functions.