The new owners are Booth’s Group Logistics, in conjunction with Brendan Prendergast, the founder and former owner of Move Logistics.
In a letter to staff, Summerland founders Ross and Barbara Millard said they were happy with the overall outcome, although sad that it signalled the end of their 29-year journey.
Mr Millard originally bought a small existing trucking business with a couple of older trucks and, with the support of his family, it had grown into a South Island-wide operation.
While leaving loyal staff, customers and suppliers was not easy, the couple believed it was time to take a step back, they said.
"We are delighted that Booth’s and Brendan have acquired Summerland as they have similar values to us, as family-owned businesses, and we encourage the Summerland team to fully support this exciting transition to new ownership and the investment in fleet, people, and systems that will come with it.
"It creates a strong national business network to further grow in the future which we feel will assure the future of our staff and create opportunities for them — something important to us."
The letter said staff would be offered new employment contracts with the new entity on the same existing terms and conditions. It was expected transfer of ownership would happen early next month.
Visits to introduce Trevor Booth to staff and to answer questions were being held this week.
Booth’s Group, owned and operated by Craig and Trevor Booth, has been operating since the early 1990s and consists of Booth’s Transport Ltd, Tomoana Warehousing Ltd and The Produce Connection Ltd.
Those businesses operate from facilities across the North Island and services provided include line-haul transport, metro delivery, container handling and warehousing.
Its business model was based on a modern fleet with a current average fleet age of 38 months and the intention was to apply that model to the Summerland business in the short to medium term, the letter said.
Key industries served included grocery, construction products and produce.
