Houston e-commerce platform expands logistics network with acquisition of fulfillment operations arm
M&A move
A Houston e-commerce unicorn has made its latest strategic acquisition.
Cart.com, which operates a multichannel commerce platform, announced that it has acquired Guthy-Renker's wholly-owned fulfillment operations arm OceanX. The terms of the deal were not disclosed. Around 200 OceanX employees will be assumed onto the Cart.com team, and the fast-growing company will add two new facilities totaling over 600,000 square feet to its network, expanding to include a West Coast distribution hub in Southern California and its third facility near Columbus, Ohio.
"Acquiring OceanX is part of Cart.com’s strategy to continue to scale our platform and capabilities across industries, leveraging our proprietary technology to improve efficiency and deliver superior results to our clients and their customers,” Omair Tariq, Cart.com founder and CEO, says in a news release. “By deploying our Constellation OMS and WMS software and seasoned operations team across these two new facilities, we will improve order visibility, labor efficiency, shipping costs and customer satisfaction for the benefit of our new clients.”
Cart.com now has 17 omnichannel fulfillment and distribution centers with around 10 million square feet and more than 1,600 team members, according to the company.
With the transition, Guthy-Renker's Co-Founder and Co-Chairman Bill Guthy will serve as a strategic adviser to Cart.com.
The move broadens Cart.com's presence in the high-volume beauty, wellness, and lifestyle industries, and the company now will work with supply chains from numerous brands, including Meaningful Beauty, The Body Firm, Smileactives, and Westmore Beauty.
“Cart.com has built a comprehensive, enterprise-grade logistics network with modern, digital capabilities that offer unparalleled visibility, control and efficiency for our brands,” Rick Odum, CEO of Guthy-Renker, says in the release. “This partnership will marry our own channel and marketing expertise with their track record of driving growth and savings for high-volume, high-SKU brands, supercharging performance across our portfolio.”
Earlier this year Cart.com secured $105 million in debt refinancing from investment manager BlackRock and a $25 million series C extension round.
In April, the company acquired an Amazon partner, Ohio-based Amify, a company that provides optimization and advertising solutions