ACL AirShop: Over 30 Successful years in air cargo products and services
January 29, 2016
EASLEY, SC – ACL AirShop, a leader in specialized products and services for the global air cargo industry, has grown in three decades to become a classic entrepreneurial success story. First founded as “Airline Container Leasing” in 1983, successor operations ultimately merged in 2007 with AirShop Holdings of Amsterdam, Netherlands. ACL AirShop has become a leading worldwide one-stop shop for leasing, sales, repair, and management of Unit Load Devices (“ULDs”) and cargo net / strap manufacturing for the aviation industry. Today the combined company operates around the world on 6 continents, at more than half of the world’s Top Fifty air cargo hub airports.
ACL AirShop provides unique products and various services to numerous air carriers. ACL AirShop operates in five highly complementary business segments: Cargo Control Products Manufacturing, ULD Leasing, ULD Sales, ULD Repairs, and ULD Logistics Management. The company manufactures and sells cargo pallets, cargo shipping containers, straps, nets, hardware, and other cargo-specific control products from its manufacturing facilities in the US and Europe. It also provides innovative leasing programs for many of these assets. It operatesFAA-approved repair stations in multiple locations to repair and overhaul these assets. And it provides sophisticated logistics management and tracking services on ULD’s for its customers.
ACL AirShop predecessor operations started in the early 1980’s with a specialty in air transport services for horses and other large animals. By steadily investing in new capabilities over the years, the company now provides a full variety of ULD’s for any air cargo mission or aircraft. In 2016, ACL AirShop finds itself in a period of unprecedented growth in the commercial airliner fleets. The use of air cargo as a preferred shipping method is growing steadily, reflecting the global shift to speedy logistics and just-in-time product management. Published reports recently cited over $5 Trillion in new orders for commercial planes through the year 2035, and almost all of those planes will carry cargo—not just the air cargo freighters. Further, the US military’s air transport requirements along with allied nations comprise another giant global cargo airlift segment that also consumes huge quantities of pallets, nets, straps, containers, and other equipment.
While increasing its operational footprint in North America, Latin America, and Europe, ACL AirShop’s growth in recent years has also followed regional trends in the Far East and Mideast. The company has a significant service presence at strategic locations such as Dubai, Hong Kong, and China. Plans call for opening a service and repair center soon in Japan (near Tokyo’s Narita Airport). Subsidiaries of ACL AirShop include DOT Tie-Down (manufacturer of cargo nets and straps), and Animal Flight Services (flight transport for horses and other animals). ACL AirShop enjoys long-term supply relations and teaming agreements with pallet manufacturer PalNet and other world class purveyors of products and systems for air cargo control.
Tony Morgan, President & CEO of ACL AirShop, said: “Our airlines clients know that ACL AirShop can deliver excellent quality, on-time delivery, and an absolute cost advantage for anything they need in cargo control equipment. We manufacture, sell, lease, repair, and manage ULDs for meticulous customers around the world. Our customers know us to be highly responsive, fast, flexible, and cost-effective. We respond on a 24/7 basis because air cargo never sleeps, and neither do we. Our quality is assured through our superbly trained and deeply experienced staffs who call ACL AirShop home.”
ACL AirShop intends to invest for growth in each of its lines of business, and expand geographically, to keep pace with rising industry trends. The headquarters is near Greenville SC, and the main international office is in Amsterdam NL.
