PolyQuest to add transportation company

PolyQuest Inc., Wilmington, North Carolina, will acquire Lake City, South Carolina-based Baker Transportation Inc. (BTI), with the transaction expected to close Oct. 1. Once the transaction is completed, the new entity will be named Baker Transportation LLC.

PolyQuest is a privately held thermoplastic resin distributor that also has facilities in Darlington, South Carolina; Florence, South Carolina; and Farmingdale, New York; as well as a European office in Austria. PolyQuest offers resins for the bottle, sheet, strapping, film, fiber, compounding and injection molding markets, including polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polypropylene, polyethylene, high-impact polystyrene, and recycled PET.

The company says BTI has grown dramatically since it was established in 1987 and calls it one of the most dependable asset-based regional carriers in the southeastern U.S. BTI is located adjacent to the I-95, I-20 and I-26 corridors, allowing access to domestic U.S. distribution routes and the ports of Wilmington, North Carolina; Charleston, South Carolina; and Savannah, Georgia. 

“Although PolyQuest will continue buying freight services from existing freight vendors, the Baker acquisition promotes extreme flexibility in tailoring freight and logistics solutions for both PolyQuest’s and Baker Transportation’s current business partners,” says John Marinelli, CEO of PolyQuest. “Billy and Leila Baker, along with their sons Michael and Justin, have an excellent reputation in the industry. They will continue to oversee all the transactional aspects of this business and remain fully committed to the existing Baker Transportation customer base today and into the future.”

Michael Baker, vice president of operations at Baker Transportation, adds, “Over the past 20 years, PolyQuest has been a loyal customer of ours at Baker Transportation. We are excited about what the future holds for our customers and employees and our continued growth in the transportation industry. Our primary focus over the last four decades has been to provide safe, dependable and quality service. These core competencies will remain unchanged.”