Walmart, Shein Logistics Partner Eyeing 2026 IPO

Logistics services company IGH Holding Inc. celebrated 20 years of business in 2023, and it has even bigger goals later this decade.

IGH Holding, a self-described “global total logistics solution” for B2B and B2C clients, is in full-throttle expansion mode ahead of a potential initial public offering (IPO) that could land by 2026.

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Founded as an air and ocean freight forwarder in 2003, IGH has since expanded to include trucking, customs clearance, warehousing, distribution and small parcel services across a series of subsidiaries.

Headquartered in Valley Stream, N.Y., IGH has several business units including its freight forwarding division Infinity Trans USA, warehousing and distribution business United Way, customs brokerage JV CHB, trucking and transportation services provider Universal Trucking & Logistics (UTL) and parcel delivery segment Global Parcel Service (GPS).

The Long Island company believes this all-in-one approach helps shippers who often have to negotiate multiple quotes, reconcile myriad invoices, and manage several relationships with different logistics providers.

IGH has offices across China, including in Shanghai, Ningbo, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, as well as Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Expansion plans to India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are also in the works.

According to Jeff Lim, CEO of IGH Holdings, the company has been able to rapidly grow overseas largely through M&A deals with businesses local to the market. He indicated that an IPO would help the logistics provider scale in these new markets. With that in mind, the firm is securing investment from a Korean apparel manufacturer and already partnering with multiple investment banks to assist in the IPO process.

“One of the reasons for the IPO is because this is a huge setup, in which we’ll need to build warehouses everywhere. We’ll need to buy a lot of trucks. We need to have strong finances to support this model,” said Lim. “That’s why we’re going to need a lot of funding to make our group grow further.”

Lim said that by 2022, IGH revenue had nearly doubled from 2019, after the company benefitted from the Covid-era e-commerce surge. Although the freight recession drove revenue down nearly 20 percent last year from the prior-year peak, the company says sales growth is up 60 percent compared with the year before the pandemic.

“During Covid, everybody was so happy in logistics, and a lot of expansion occurred through the industry. However, after Covid, a lot of companies went under because of overcapacity, and then a lot of trucking companies like Yellow had been washed out from the market,” Lim told Sourcing Journal. “For those that can survive during this time, the demand [is] going to be very strong when the market comes back. So we are preparing for the market to get stabilized and grow.”

Lim anticipates 40 percent to 50 percent growth over the next few years.

The Infinity Trans USA freight forwarding unit remains the company’s core across air and ocean services, representing 40 percent of IGH’s total revenue.

Currently, IGH operates 11 U.S. warehouses spanning 1.5 million square feet, and distributes for retail giants including Walmart, Target and TJX. IGH also handles transloading—the process of transferring goods from one mode of transportation to another—for Amazon shipments.

Roughly 60 percent of IGH’s customer base falls in the apparel, footwear and handbag categories, but the company has been looking to push further into more categories with the GPS segment, which was established in 2018.

GPS, which Lim calls the company’s “e-logistics” division, is IGH’s fastest-growing segment by revenue. The delivery unit has already forged partnerships with e-commerce giants including Shein and Temu, as well as several sellers on Amazon.

“The e-logistics unit is strong, but it’s still only 10 percent of total revenue,” Lim said. “However, the growth potential is high—it’s going to reach 25 percent or more in one or two years.”

Complementing the parcel service, Lim sees greater opportunities in last-mile delivery. This year IGH plans to start a regional last-mile carrier that will serve California, New York and New Jersey.

IGH’s expansion roadmap comes amid growing interest in supply chain digitization.

“For my 20-plus years in this industry, what I can tell you is—the technology in logistics is not there,” Lim said. “The IT in logistics is behind compared to other industries. After we built all the infrastructure, and we’ve invested a lot into IT integration over the past two years, we’re starting to build the our team to digitalize our logistics operations further.”