A DEAL to sell Border Express to a Singapore company for $210 million makes sense, given his family's situation and future challenges, founder Max Luff says.
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The 92 year-old has told The Border Mail of how the pending sale to Singapore Post subsidiary Freight Management Holdings followed feelers being put out by the foreign firm.
"They approached us, they first talked to us three years ago, so it's not a quick decision," Mr Luff said.
He cited the capital investment required for the company, which has 1300 staff and up to 500 subcontractors, as a reason for the disposal, along with reduced family involvement.
Border Express was founded by Mr Luff in 1981 and his four sons Geoff, Grant, Mark and Jon have worked with the company and are directors.
However, the only third generation member at the company is account manager Tom Luff.
"It's probably time," Geoff Luff said when asked why the freight giant was being sold.
"When I say time, as a family we've probably taken it as far as it can go.
"We've now got an outside of the family chairman, an outside of the family CEO.
"One brother's on the executive leadership team, so it's just a changing business and the opportunity arose with FMH."
Max Luff said the sale reflected the evolution of the company, which has depots in every mainland state and territory and has 120 staff in Albury.
"I think we're quite pragmatic about it and it's time to move on," Mr Luff said.
"You obviously have a tinge of regret because you start off with three people and there's now 1700 people, 18 terminals around Australia, we've achieved a bit in the 40 years."
Border Express was not Mr Luff's first transport company.
The former Nowra high school teacher launched Albury Border Transport in 1959 after moving to the region following a ski trip which saw him meet his future wife Lynn.
That company was bought out by Ansett Freight Express in the mid-1970s and he started Border Express with the premise that those on the Border would prefer to do business with locals.
After an initial focus on hauling for Twin City-based manufacturers Moore Paragon, Borg-Warner, Kimberly-Clark and Australian Newsprint Mills, Mr Luff decided in the late 1990s there was a need to expand.
"I just thought the market was too small and I started to look for something outside on a national basis," Mr Luff said.
"It took me about three years going through the Financial Review and I finally came across a crowd called Marsden's Transport based in Clayton in Victoria and they were turning over $10 million a year and that become the basis of our national company.
"If we hadn't branched out of Albury we would have been out of business today, because they've all gone out, everyone of the companies that we started with have now left the campus."
Mr Luff says the biggest change in the industry had been improved safety and professionalism, reflecting drivers in the 1960s had "two logbooks and the yippee beans under their seat".
The deal with FMH is expected to be completed by Christmas with hopes the name will be retained by the buyer who already owns GKR Transport, Niche Logistics, BagTrans, Formby Logistics and Spectrum Transport in the same sector.
"The intention at this stage is to maintain the name," Mr Luff said.
"They'd be stupid if they didn't because it's probably one of the best names in Australia today for that particular segment of transport - parcels and general freight interstate and regionally."
How Essendon sponsorship came about
THERE was no personal affection from company founder Max Luff that drove the decision of Border Express to sponsor the Essendon football club from 2017.
"That's a sore point," Mr Luff said when asked about the deal that saw the company's logo on the shorts of Bombers players.
Director Geoff Luff said it was driven by Border Express having a terminal nearby the AFL club's Tullamarine training base.
"Essendon were down the road, at the time we were relaunching our brand, so we went from the old red and blue to the red, white and black or charcoal," Mr Luff said.
"We were going into parcels, so we just needed to lift our profile and Essendon were the same colours."
Max Luff is a Sydney supporter, while Geoff Luff follows the Tigers and was happy to point out "Richmond won three flags in that time" of sponsorship.
