Head of Transplace-Owned Firm Among Symposium Speakers

George Abernathy, president of logistics for Transplace, and Celtic International president Richard Hyland will give the introductory presentation May 8 at Transplace’s annual Shipper Symposium in Phoenix.

Transplace, a third-party logistics provider based in Frisco, Texas, acquired Celtic, a Chicago-based intermodal brokerage company, last October.

The acquisition gave Transplace revenue of more than $1 billion, a news release stated. Celtic is now a “standalone” division of the company.

Lowell-based J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. and five other trucking companies created Transplace in 2000. Its Lowell office remains Transplace’s largest operations center, with about 275 of the company’s 550 or so employees.

That office mainly serves suppliers to Wal-Mart Stores Inc., and counts among its clients such heavyweights as Microsoft Corp., Del Monte Foods and AutoZone.

J.B. Hunt maintained majority ownership of Transplace until 2009, when private investment firm CI Capital Partners LLC of New York acquired Transplace.

Transplace made its first acquisition in April 2011, when it purchased SCO Logistics, also a non-asset-based third-party logistics firm. Transplace president and CEO Tom Sanderson said at the time the company was looking to make more acquisitions.