UK logistics company Europa Worldwide has bought the Ostend company Continental Cargo Carriers (CCC), which specialises in part and full load cargo.

Andrew Baxter, Europa’s managing director, said: “This acquisition is not about Europa expanding outside of the UK market. It is about strengthening our offering to and from the UK. The acquisition will not affect any of our groupage partnerships. Even in Belgium our groupage operation will remain unchanged and our aspiration is for all of CCC’s team to stay in place.”

Europa has previously indicated the plan to be a £400 million business in the next four years. It will achieve this through acquisition as well as organic growth. Baxter said: “I’d like to see us completing a couple of acquisitions of this size a year for the next few years – continuing to strengthen our offering across all of our four divisions.”

The Belgian company has a fleet of 270 trailers and a 4,000 square metre warehouse. It employs around 100 people in the UK, Belgium and the Czech Republic.

Etienne Lefevere of CCC said: “We believe becoming part of Europa Worldwide Group perfectly fits in CCC NV’s strategy to further develop its successful part-loads service, implement top notch IT solutions to support further growth and provide the best possible service to our long-standing customer base.”

Europa increased turnover by 24 per cent to £144m last year while underlying net profit increased to £3.2m from £1.1m in 2016.