Kewill Acquires CSF GmbH Further Extending its Global Leadership in Supply Chain Execution

Addition of CSF extends Kewills geographic coverage with the leading international trade logistics solution provider in Germany

Kewill Systems plc, provider of supply chain control software and solutions, today announces the acquisition of CSF GmbH.

CSF is a privately-owned, leading provider of freight forwarding and customs clearance solutions in the German and Swiss markets.  The company has over 70 employees with offices near Frankfurt, Hamburg, Dusseldorf and Basel in Switzerland.  CSFs customs product Zabis and freight forwarding application B2Logisistik are used by over 300 Logistics Services Providers (LSP), customs authorities and shippers including DHL Exel, TNT, Fedex, UPS, Schenker, Panalpina, Hellman, Yusen and Bax Global, airlines such as Lufthansa and Air Canada and enterprise shippers such as Volkswagen, Ford, Samsung and Nintendo. 

This announcement further strengthens Kewills geographic coverage for its international trade and logistics solutions.  Together, Kewill and CSF solutions can support shippers and logistics providers with the end-to-end management of orders, transportation, warehousing, forwarding, customs brokerage, and ultimate distribution of goods from a single provider with North American and, with this acquisition, further extended European capability. Visibility throughout the distribution cycle represents a dramatic step forward in enabling logistics providers to accelerate their time to delivery, minimize their costs and maintain control of the goods throughout the export/import process.

Following the closing of the acquisition, CSF will become part of Kewills Trade and Logistics business and Wolfgang Schwab and Frank Povolny will remain in place as joint Managing Directors of the German and Swiss operations. They will join the European management team of Kewills Global Trade & Logistics business.  All other CSF management and staff will remain with the Kewill Group.

"As a result of todays announcement and Kewills extensive network, CSF customers can now have access to a suite of solutions that provide visibility and control of shipments from order to delivery around the world, said Messrs. Schwab and Povolny.  

Ron Vollebregt, Managing Director of Kewill Trade and Logistics Europe says CSF is the market leader in Germany and Switzerland whose loyal and experienced employees have strong domain skills and will therefore be a good cultural fit into Kewills existing business.  Kewill Global Trade and Logistics is the leading Global provider of software solutions to Trade, Transport and Logistics companies. With over 300 staff in Europe, Far East and USA we deliver and support our integrated solutions for (Air + Sea) Freight Forwarding, Customs, Trade, Transport and (bonded) Warehousing to over 1,000 customers in this global market.

Kewill Trade and Logistics is the market leader in this segment with offices, to support our international customers, in the US, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands, Switzerland and UK and partnerships in France, Hungary and Poland. CSF s existing ETN partner network will extend the European partnerships of Kewill.

Paul Nichols, Chief Executive Officer of Kewill Systems plc, commented, "This acquisition is part of our stated strategy to expand our supply chain execution capabilities into leading trading communities around the world.  With CSF we also expand our ability to provide  hosted solutions supplied for a monthly fee, a model often preferred by small and medium enterprises (SME).