Economic development officials yesterday officially welcomed TNT Logistics Corp. to Maryland, where the transportation support concern led by a co-founder of Federal Express will relocate its North American headquarters next month.
"TNT is an international transportation and logistics giant," Mark L. Wasserman, Maryland's Economic and Employment Development secretary, said during a press conference at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. "This company is an important new force for business."
Mr. Wasserman pointed to the company's growth potential and the involvement of TNT Chief Executive Officer Michael J. Fitzgerald, a co-founder of Federal Express, as reasons to be excited about the move. TNT expects to increase its $90 million annual revenues to more than $300 million by the end of 1997.
DEED and the Anne Arundel Economic Development Corp. provided TNT Logistics with $450,000 in loans, grants and work-force training as incentives for the move.
TNT Logistics, the U.S. subsidiary of a $5.7 billion Australian trucking and airline conglomerate, signed a lease last week to move to Linthicum, near BWI. The company's North American headquarters had been in Tampa, Fla., since 1989.
The company, which counts the Big Three U.S. automakers among its clients, provides transportation, purchasing and distribution support and management to firms that often have eliminated those functions through downsizing.
"Often times logistics is looked at simply as trucks and warehouses," said Mr. Fitzgerald, who joined TNT Logistics seven months ago. "But our job is to convince people there are more and better ways to ship goods. We provide opportunities for companies to improve their margins."
TNT Logistics recently won a Chrysler Corp. contract that involves the management of raw material pickup and transportation from the Midwest and Canada for production at the company's Newark, Del., plant, according to its most recent annual report.
TNT Logistics initially will employ 25 people locally when it moves to 8,372 square feet in Mid-Atlantic Realty Trust's five-story Gateway International II project.