International freight forwarder AIT Worldwide Logistics has acquired Global Transport Solutions Group (GTS), a Netherlands-based international freight forwarder specializing in time-critical marine spare parts logistics.

GTS, with 16 locations in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America, serves more than 2,000 ports around the world. The GTS network also includes nine consolidation hubs totaling more than 45,000 square meters of warehouse space.
 
 In a statement February 1, AIT Chairman and chief executive officer, Vaughn Moore, said, “This is the largest acquisition in our company’s history and GTS’ marine spare parts business is an excellent complement to AIT’s time-critical supply chain solutions.”
 
 The company’s business is divided into two sub-brands: Marinetrans (founded in 1991), which offers “door-to-deck” spare parts logistics for ship owners and managers, and Best Global Logistics (founded in 2007), providing time-critical solutions and general forwarding for other industries, including life sciences shippers.
 
 According to AIT’s chief business officer, Greg Weigel, the acquisition provides the company with new geographic presence in Greece, Japan and the Nordic region while adding significant capacity and subject matter expertise to existing AIT networks in China, the Netherlands and Singapore. The deal also provides a strong foundation to expand GTS’ marine spare parts solutions via AIT’s global freight network.
 
 Terms of AIT’s agreement to acquire Global Transport Solutions Group have not been disclosed.