Descartes brings GreenMile into the fold in acquisition to boost food and beverage services

Waterloo, Ontario-based Descartes, a provider of logistics based on-demand, software-as-a-service offerings, recently announced it acquired Orlando, Fla.-based GreenMile, a provider of cloud-based mobile route execution services for food, beverage, and broader distribution verticals.

Descartes officials said that it paid an up-front cash consideration of $30 million, for GreenMile, as well as potential performance-based consideration.

Established in 2011, GreenMile was developed to help companies achieve the highest levels of efficiency that provides increased visibility, management and optimization of mobile teams, according to the company’s website. And Descartes added that GreenMile's highly scalable mobile route execution solutions digitize final-mile delivery processes and eliminate manual paper processes from the supply chain, which improves productivity, increases efficiencies, and provides real-time delivery visibility to enhance customer service. GreenMile’s technology is leveraged by some of the leading global food and beverage shippers.  

“GreenMile has built a great business by focusing on the unique challenges faced by retail food and beverage distribution companies,” said Andrew Roszko, EVP Commercial Operations at Descartes. “Their mobile applications are used by drivers around the world to improve their productivity and provide real-time delivery visibility to enhance customer service. The platform is complemented with advanced analytics and delivery performance management tools to provide managers in the field and corporate leadership with a comprehensive view of field operations. When combined with Descartes’ advanced route optimization tools, we believe it presents a compelling proposition to help distributors improve their final-mile delivery operations.”

Chris Jones, EVP of Industry & Services at Descartes, told LM that Descartes has been a leader in providing solutions for last mile delivery for a number of years and recognizes that there is no single approach to effectively address the diversity of business models that exist.

“We were attracted to GreenMile’s route execution capabilities, market success, caliber of its global customers and Latin American presence,” he said.

As for the main benefits this acquisition provides for Descartes’ customers, Jones explained that Descartes serves a wide range of industry verticals and has quite a number of food and beverage customers globally.

“Descartes customers in those markets can leverage the unique capabilities that were designed to enhance their delivery productivity and visibility while supporting their distinct operational models,” he said. “For example, in Brazil, beverage distributors are expected to provide more services than just delivering their products as would be the case in the U.S.”

When asked what GreenMile, provides, or offers, to Descartes that may have been missing, Jones observed that besides deep food and beverage distribution domain expertise, GreenMile has also made considerable advancements in their technology platform, mobile applications and in particular in machine learning that will augment Descartes’ own advancements in these areas.

“Equally, Descartes has advanced optimization technologies that will help GreenMile’s customers and markets be more productive and offer advanced delivery services,” he noted. “World class logistics solutions require deep domain expertise and an architecture that reflects the unique requirements of the business. However, shortening their time-to-value and supporting their global presence are also critical for our customers. GreenMile helps us accelerate all of that for food and beverage companies.”