Catawba Targets Logistics Success With Distribution Facilities
Published May 27, 2009
FedEx Ground is doubling its workforce in Catawba County with a 109,000-square-foot distribution facility.
When it comes to distribution, Catawba County is a prime spot from which to move goods along the Atlantic Coast and throughout the Southeast.
Among the county’s keys advantages is, in a word, location, says Scott Millar, Catawba County Economic Development Corp. president.
Catawba County is intersected by Interstate 40, a major east-west transportation route, and is within 30 minutes of two major north-south interstates – I-77 and I-85.
Being situated less than an hour from Charlotte and its hub airport, midway between Florida and New York, and within a day’s drive of 60 percent of the U.S. population doesn’t hurt either.
Despite national trends, the distribution industry that has boosted the county’s economy in recent years shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, the county’s reputation as a distribution hub is getting extra oomph out of retail giant Target’s new 1.6 million-square-foot center, which opened in summer 2009 in Newton.
The Target project represents a $90 million capital investment in Catawba County, Millar says, and will be the largest such facility in the 16-county Charlotte region.
The building features 37 acres under one roof and contains 6 miles of conveyor belts. Initial employment is 450 workers.
The retailer chose to locate in Catawba County because of its accessibility to transportation, as well as the availability of a skilled workforce and the quality of life in the area.
In addition, other distribution operations already located in the area are expanding, including FedEx Ground and Merchants Distributors Inc., a privately owned wholesale grocery store distributor that supplies more than 600 retail food stores in the Southeast.
FedEx Ground’s $5 million, 109,000-square-foot facility replaces an existing facility and will double its workforce to 120, Millar says.
Merchants Distributors plans to invest $50.5 million in an expansion that will add 260,000 square feet to the company’s existing distribution facility off U.S. 321 North in Hickory.
The project will increase the size of the facility to more than 1 million square feet and be the second expansion at the site since it was built in 1996. The expansion will add 200 jobs to the company’s 1,500-employee workforce in the region.
The upshot of all this is good economic news for Catawba County. The new and expanding distribution centers will provide much-needed jobs.
“It will mean an increase in demand for support services, such as fueling and truck repair, packaging services and cleaning services,” Millar says. “As this demand increases, we hope suppliers might be convinced to locate in the area as well. As word gets out, we expect to see an increase in companies considering Catawba County for their own distribution centers.”
Story by Carol Cowan
Photo by Ian Curcio
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