C.H. Robinson Worldwide will be able to expand its operations in Spain and Colombia with its latest acquisition.

The Eden Prairie-based company paid $48 million for Madrid-based Space Cargo Group, providers of customs brokerage and other logistics services in Spain and Colombia.

"The acquisition of Space Cargo advances our strategy of expanding our presence globally," said Bob Biesterfeld, Robinson's chief operating officer who will become CEO in May. "We look forward to working with Space Cargo's customers to offer our full suite of logistics services to enhance their supply chains."

The Space Cargo Group was founded in 1982 and has more than 2,500 active customers. Last year, the company had annual revenue of about $84 million.

"We are excited to join C.H. Robinson, the best third-party logistics provider, and build on the business we have done together for more than 10 years," said Jordi Pellice, chief executive of Space Cargo, in the statement.

The Space Cargo group has had an exclusive agent relationship with C.H. Robinson for business between Spain and North America and Australia.

Space Cargo has about 170 employees at seven offices throughout Spain and one in Colombia. The group will be merged into C.H. Robinson's Global Forwarding division as well as use Robinson's Navisphere global logistics technology platform.

Robinson's Global Forwarding division does business in 32 countries and has over 4,000 employees in 125 offices worldwide.

Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926