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Descartes pays $30 million to acquire delivery route planning vendor GreenMile

Price tag could reach $40 million if firm hits revenue targets for its software products for retail food and beverage delivery.

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Canadian logistics technology provider Descartes Systems Group says it can help distributors improve their final-mile delivery operations, since the company announced its latest acquisition today and paid $30 million to buy GreenMile, which provides cloud-based mobile route execution solutions for the retail food and beverage sector.

Ontario-based Descartes has been on an acquisition tear for years, adding many companies to its software-as-a-service platform for tasks like delivery routing, shipment execution, transportation invoicing, global trade data management, and customs and security compliance.


Most recently, the company bought the German firm Portrix Logistics Software for $26.7 million and the New Jersey import/export firm QuestaWeb for $36 million.

The latest takeover is Orlando, Florida-based GreenMile, which says its software helps food and beverage companies to digitalize their final-mile delivery processes, thereby eliminating paper from the supply chain, increasing efficiencies, and improving customer satisfaction. The purchase price of $30 million could rise as high as $40 million if GreenMile meets performance targets for revenue generation over the next two years.

“We continue to invest in a broader set of capabilities to help our customers across diverse industry verticals solve their final-mile challenges,” Descartes CEO Edward J Ryan said in a release. “The GreenMile combination helps us by adding a team with deep domain expertise in retail food and beverage distribution, extending our operational footprint and presence in Latin America, and adding to our community of truly global distribution companies.”

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