The Great Lakes Group

The Great Lakes Group > Blog > Sarter Marine Towing Joins Forces with The Great Lakes Towing Company

Blog

Sarter Marine Towing Joins Forces with The Great Lakes Towing Company

03/18/2022

Sarter Marine Tow­ing Com­pa­ny Inc. (“Sarter”) is pleased to announce that it has agreed upon defin­i­tive terms for the sale of Sarter to The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny (the “Tow­ing Com­pa­ny”).  The agree­ment includes the Tow­ing Company’s pur­chase of the tug­boats Don­ald J. Sarter and WILLIAM C. SELVIK, as well as all sup­port­ing machin­ery and equip­ment and most oth­er shore­side assets.   The remain­ing five tugs in Sarter’s fleet will be char­tered to the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny under a long-term bare­boat char­ter arrange­ment.  The Tow­ing Com­pa­ny has retained all employ­ees of Sarter Marine and will sup­ple­ment the busi­ness with admin­is­tra­tive and finan­cial sup­port to help sup­port and enhance Sarter’s cur­rent book of tow­ing busi­ness in the region.

Last fall, the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny sta­tioned two (2) tugs in Stur­geon Bay, includ­ing one of its his­toric “G” tugs and a for­mer Navy YTB.  With the Sarter Marine Tow­ing fleet, the Tow­ing Com­pa­ny will con­tin­ue to pro­vide time­ly ship assist ser­vices to Fin­cantieri Bay Ship­build­ing (FBS), the domes­tic fleet of U.S. and Cana­di­an lak­ers, and vis­it­ing for­eign flag sal­ties.  The com­bined com­pa­nies will also con­tin­ue to pro­vide stout ice break­ing assets for ice work in Stur­geon Bay and sur­round­ing waters. 

“The Sarter Marine Tow­ing Team is excit­ed to part­ner with Great Lakes Tow­ing.  They have been a plea­sure to work with,” said Julie Sarter, Pres­i­dent and Own­er of Sarter Marine Towing. 

“The acqui­si­tion of Sarter Marine sig­nif­i­cant­ly enhances the Tow­ing Company’s capa­bil­i­ties in North­ern Green Bay and Lake Michi­gan.  We look for­ward to inte­grat­ing Sarter’s marine trans­porta­tion capa­bil­i­ties and reach into the Tow­ing Company’s oper­a­tion, while con­tin­u­ing to pro­vide supe­ri­or ser­vice to the cus­tomers we have been priv­i­leged to serve for years,” says Joe Star­ck, Pres­i­dent, The Great Lakes Tow­ing Com­pa­ny.  “This is real­ly a win-win out­come for every­one involved!”

The acqui­si­tion will close on March 23, 2022.