M&A and investment
Meridian Courier Network ("Meridian") is a regional parcel carrier facing cost inflation and flat volumes.
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Meridian Courier Network is a courier and last-mile parcel carrier operating across a six-state region in the US Midwest. It runs a mixed fleet of 340 company-owned vans and 210 owner-operator vehicles out of 14 depots. Revenue was $111.0M in FY2025, roughly $63M from parcel delivery, $30M from B2B freight and document runs, and the rest from storage, returns, and ancillary fees. EBITDA was $5.94M, a 5.4% margin, well below the 8-10% that best-in-class mid-size carriers achieve. A new CFO, hired in January 2026 from a large integrator, has told the Board that "we are running a 1990s operation with 2020s customer expectations."
Three pressures are converging. First, a national carrier has begun targeting Meridian's mid-market accounts with aggressive pricing and a slick tracking experience. Second, courier wages rose 9.2% last year while Meridian's contractual price increases averaged only 3.1%. Third, volume growth has stalled: parcel shipments grew just 1.8% in FY2025, versus the 11-14% Meridian's sales plan had assumed, because two large catalog clients cut shipments when their own order volumes softened.
The CFO's team has sketched a digital transformation program, internally named "Project Compass", that would link depot scans, driver app events, and customer data into one platform. A pilot at the Fort Wayne depot (route-sequencing assistant plus live proof-of-delivery in the driver app) cut average stop time from 14.8 to 12.9 minutes and reduced failed first attempts from 6.8% to 2.1% of deliveries. The CFO wants a decision this quarter between three options: Option A, a full platform build across depots, routes, and customer-facing portals; Option B, an operations-only roll-out of the route-sequencing and driver-app tools; Option C, a customer-portal-only upgrade. Capex and run-rate benefits for each option are in Exhibit 3. The Board, however, has seen digital programs at two peer carriers collapse under their own weight, and a director has asked pointedly whether the "soft" benefits will survive contact with reality. The CEO has privately signaled that anything above $12M of capex needs a payback under three years.
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