Mainfreight International was Mainfreight's first international sea and airfreight business and was started in 1984 by Bruce Plested's brother Gerald. They established agencies in the early days with Australian, Pacific Island and United States freight forwarders and the established agents in most major trading partner countries of New Zealand. With the takeover of Australian freight forwarder ISS Express lines in 1998 they established the Australian international freight business. With the takeover of the Owens Group in 2003 they purchased Owens International Australia. In 2006 the New Zealand Mainfreight International and Owens International businesses were also merged to make Mainfreight Owens International Ltd (now Mainfreight International). In 2007 Mainfreight purchased Halford International (formerly Halford Young) to increase their airfreight abilities and strengthen their global network. Mainfreight has international operations in the USA through its CaroTrans International Inc and most recently Mainfreight International Inc businesses after the 2007 acquisition of Target Logistics, in Asia (nine branches in China, one each in Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong).
Read more about this topic: Mainfreight