United Shipping Buys Courier

September 17, 1999 11:40 AM, EDT

A Minnesota-based company that manufacturers package shipping kiosks and recently started its own courier business has agreed to buy Corporate Express Delivery Systems.

The deal will make United Shipping & Technology of Minneapolis the largest same-day delivery firm in the United States and one of the largest in the world.

Corporate Express Delivery Systems, a subsidiary of office supply distributor Corporate Express of Broomfield, Colo., has annual revenue of more than $600 million and operates more than 200 offices in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong and the United Kingdom.

Divestiture of the courier business was one of the conditions attached to the pending sale of Corporate Express to Dutch office products distributor Buhrmann N.V. of Amsterdam.

For the full story, see the Sept. 20 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.