Kain & Shelton (“K&S”) was formed in 1945 and operated for many years supporting Mt Gambier and Victorian based businesses. In 1978 K&S expanded into national rail freight forwarding with annual revenues in that year topping $5 million. By 1986 revenues had reached $50m per annum and in 1988
Allan Scott purchased K&S, turning it into a public company.
In 1991, K&S started operating the first B Double combination in Victoria and by 1993 K&S revenues
had risen to $150m per annum. In 2000, K&S sold its Express Division and in the same year we expanded our geographic coverage by acquiring the Brisbane based FH Transport.
In 2001 K&S acquired Stepnell Transport, and in 2002 we expanded into the New Zealand market and acquired Cochrane’s Transport in New Zealand. This was complemented by the acquisition of two further businesses, McCarthy’s Transport (specializing in log haulage) and North Eastern Transport (specialising in primary produce haulage).
The development of Truganina in Melbourne’s West and the acquisition of DTM provided significant consolidation opportunities whilst the acquisition of Bunbury based Brookes Transport in 2008 again expanded our geographic coverage to include the South West of Western Australia.
In January 2010 K&S acquired the business of Pacific Transport which was focused on the Perth to Broome and Derby regions of Western Australia.
In July 2010 K&S acquired the business of Perth-based Regal Transport Group, being focused on the Perth to Pilbara region, with depots in Port Hedland, Newman and Karratha.
In January 2011 K&S opened its new depot in Kewdale (WA) and further aligned itself to the exploration
and mining industries.
On 31 October 2012 K&S announced the acquisition of Bunbury-based, Collare Transport further consolidating the expansion into Western Australia. The Collare based business has a complimentary customer profile, lane mix and equipment base to the Dardanup business formerly known as Brookes Transport.
On 24 February 2014 K&S completed the acquisition of Scott Corporation. This was completed by way of an off market takeover bid. Scott Corporation is a national courier with expertise in the transport of bulk solids, liquids and explosives. Scott Corporation has four operating divisions being Bulktrans, Energytrans, Chemtrans and Hyde Park Tanks.
On 3 March 2015 completed the acquisition of the business and assets of Northern Territory Freight Services (NTFS). With a customer base predominantly in the FMCG sector, NTFS is one of the largest rail freight forwarders on the Adelaide – Alice Springs – Darwin corridor. NTFS also provides road linehaul services between Adelaide and Darwin.
On 2 November 2015 K&S announced the acquisition of the business and assets of Aero Refuellers. The acquisition of Aero Refuellers allows K&S to expand its current transport operations into the aviation sector. Based in Albury, Aero Refuellers was formed more than fifteen years ago and supplies, manages and/or operates a number of aviation refuelling facilities, predominantly at airfields in regional New South Wales and Victoria. Aero Refuellers also supports aerial fire fighting activities in several states including New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
On 30 January 2017 K&S completed the acquisition of Scotts Transport Industries (STI). STI was established by the late Allan Scott AO more than 60 years ago and was one of Australia’s largest privately-owned transport companies. STI operates a general freight division and a fuel cartage division and has a number of blue chip customers in the manufacturing, FMCG and fuel sectors. The transaction was an excellent opportunity to further expand the K&S Energy division through the addition of significant fuel cartage operations and will also provide additional volume to K&S Freighters existing intermodal and contract logistic divisions.