Argosy Private Equity Acquires Controlling Interest in K&L Freight Management

What happened

Argosy Private Equity, a lower-middle-market private equity firm based in Wayne, Pennsylvania, acquired a controlling interest in K&L Freight Management, a third-party logistics provider headquartered in St. Charles, Illinois. Argosy announced the deal on July 6, 2026, and calls K&L its most recent platform investment. K&L's existing senior management team is continuing with the company and is investing alongside Argosy in the transaction. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The seller

Russell Gallemore founded K&L in 1997. The company handles time-sensitive freight for food and beverage, life sciences and energy customers, among other industries. Its services are expedited ground and air, temperature-controlled logistics, time-sensitive flatbed, and cross-border freight with a focus on trade between the US and Mexico. Its customers range from local small businesses to global life sciences and consumer packaged goods companies. Beyond the St. Charles headquarters, K&L has offices in Chicago, West Linn, Oregon, and Guadalajara, Mexico.

Argosy describes K&L as asset-light, moving freight through a curated network of vetted carriers. K&L calls itself asset-hybrid: alongside that network, its dedicated-assets service runs on its own fleet. Before this deal, K&L had completed two acquisitions that broadened its service offering and customer base.

Pat Draut, K&L's president at the time of the deal, has a background in corporate development, including sourcing and closing acquisitions and post-merger integration. Executive vice presidents Ken Skinn, who joined in 2010, and Bridget Palcko, who joined in 2017, round out the senior team. "In Argosy, we believe we have found a partner who values that culture and the relationships behind it, and I'm confident they and our team will carry it forward," Gallemore said. Draut said the company intends "to continue pursuing opportunities with the same focus on execution that has defined K&L for nearly three decades."

The buyer

Argosy invests in U.S. manufacturing, business services and logistics companies, often family- or founder-owned. The firm says it has partnered with more than 140 investments over more than 25 years. "The Company has built a differentiated service-oriented platform that provides specialized logistics solutions to its customer base," said Seth Wilson, a partner at Argosy.

Where K&L sits in Argosy's logistics portfolio

Besides K&L, Argosy's portfolio lists four active transportation and logistics companies, and Wilson is lead partner on three of them. The one closest to K&L's business is Best Warehousing & Transportation, an Atlanta 3PL offering warehousing, transportation and freight brokerage, which Argosy backed in November 2022. The most recent is Western Peaks Logistics, a Salt Lake City final-mile delivery company added in October 2024. In February 2026, two Argosy portfolio companies, Diverse Logistics of Tampa and Pulse Final Mile, merged to form a single big-and-bulky final-mile business.

What this means for third-party logistics owners

K&L joins Argosy as a platform, not an add-on, and it comes with two acquisitions of its own already done. Among the logistics holdings on Argosy's portfolio, it is the only one built around expedited, temperature-controlled, and cross-border freight, and the only one headquartered in Illinois. For owners of specialized freight brokerages, that puts a controlling private equity owner behind a St. Charles 3PL whose leadership has already been on the buying side of a deal and now has its own capital at stake. Owners weighing a sale to a platform like this can read our guide to selling a logistics company.

OffDeal is an advisory firm that helps lower-middle-market business owners sell with confidence. Reach out to learn more about our expertise with third-party logistics businesses in Illinois.

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Source: Argosy Private Equity - https://argosycapital.com/argosy-charts-a-new-route-with-kl-freight-acquisition/