Kewill announces $11.6m Aristo acquisition

NEWS Supply chain specialist, Kewill Systems, pushed further into the US parcel carrier market today with the $11.6m acquisition of Aristo Computers and its R&D wing, Aristo Research. Kewill, based in the UK, develops Web-based consignment management software designed to rate, track, label and process documents and parcels; Aristo Computers specialises in object-oriented applications to automate shipping and mailing, including tools to allow online access to shipping functionality such as status queries and rate shopping. Kewill claims the deal will make it the dominant force in the US multicarrier management software market. According to Bob Malley, president of Kewill's ecommerce division, the company will continue to use Aristo's strong brand name and reputation to market, sell and support existing products. "We will also now begin work on a next-generation Web-enabled product for release in mid-2000," he said. "Our new products will operate from a Web-based server, allowing processing on a thin client rather than Windows-based machines." According to Geoffrey Finlay, chief executive of Kewill, the US market leads the way in terms of Web-enabled innovation in the parcel distribution industry, but deregulation will drive demand for similar technology in Europe. Malley added: "The US parcel delivery market is much more developed. The UK and Europe has traditionally relied on private post offices, but now we are starting to see the emergence of pan-European services, and we intend to be at the centre of that."