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Logistics Company Merger Called Off Caribbean Shipping Says It Can Grow Business Through New Shipping Lines.

Posted on: Tuesday, 21 March 2006, 18:00 CST

By TIMOTHY J. GIBBONS

A local logistics company has called off its merger with a division of a Georgia-based competitor, saying new shipping lines coming into Jacksonville will enable the company to grow on its own.

Caribbean Shipping Services Inc. and Eagle Logistics Systems -- the Jacksonville division of AJC International Inc. of Atlanta -- agreed to combine their operations last year, but told customers this week that the deal has been cancelled.

The deal was designed to give Caribbean, which was founded in Jacksonville in 1993, access to additional markets: It now serves the Caribbean and Puerto Rico, to which it ships frozen items. Eagle also focuses on Puerto Rico, shipping dry goods to the island that stands as Jacksonville's largest trading partner.

The merger would have also provided Caribbean Shipping with access to the 140 countries to which AJC ships frozen meat.

"It allowed us introduction into international markets," said Paul Robbins, president of Caribbean. "The arrival of Mitsui gives us entree into international markets as well."

Mitsui O.S.K. Lines is the Japanese shipping company that has signed a deal to build a mammoth terminal at Dames Point, connecting Jacksonville to the burgeoning Asian markets. The Jacksonville Port Authority has also announced deals with lines that travel between here and Africa and South America and is working on getting European shipping lines to begin operations.

"The vast majority of trade through Jacksonville's port has been to the Caribbean and Latin America," said Port Authority spokesman Robert Peek, who said the authority has been working to diversify that business. "Opening up trade lanes with Africa and Asia opens up new markets for Jacksonville-area businesses to sell their goods and a more direct link to their suppliers."

Caribbean will be looking to take advantage of those new trade lanes in another way as well: By building warehouses, distribution centers or other facilities that would help move the cargo coming and going between here and other countries, a project for which the company recently bought 72.5 acres near the Blount Island Marine Terminal. timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4103

Source: Florida Times Union

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