FedEx Ground, the group’s expanding US parcel company, has chosen a 77-acre site in Troutdale tobuild a distribution hub that will be double the size of its existing operation in Portland,
Oregon. A formal ground breaking ceremony for the $100 million new facility took place on October29.The 415,000 square-foot facility will be built in the new Troutdale Reynolds Industrial Parkand will cost about $100 million including land, construction and material-handling equipment,FedEx Ground announced.
Scheduled to open in 2010, the hub will feature the latest automated material handlingtechnology designed to initially process 25,000 packages per hour and eventually 45,000 packagesper hour when it reaches full capacity after a projected expansion. The workforce at opening isprojected to include more than 500 full-time and part-time employees and about 200 independentcontractor opportunities, many of which will transfer from the current facility.
The new FedEx Ground hub is part of a nationwide network expansion to boost daily packagevolume capacity and further enhance the speed and service capabilities of its network. Sinceembarking on the multi-year expansion program in 2002, FedEx Ground has opened seven new hubsfeaturing the most advanced material handling systems and expanded and/or relocated more than 500local facilities.
The network enhancements have resulted in accelerating ground service delivery by one day ormore in more than half of the United States. FedEx Ground delivers more than 50% of packages in twodays or less and more than 80% of packages in three days or less. Additionally, average dailypackages volumes have increased by more than 50% from 2.1 million in 2003 to more than 3.3 milliontoday.
“Enhancing our distribution capability in the Northwest is an important step in our ongoingefforts to increase the size, speed and efficiency of our network,” said John F. Hiltz, vicepresident of the Western Division for FedEx Ground. “This significantly larger facility will enableus to meet the growing demand of local shippers and transport shipments across the country. Thecity of Troutdale officials have been very receptive as we worked through the purchase and we lookforward to establishing our presence in the community.”
The Troutdale site was chosen because of its ease of access to major highways, its proximityto customers’ distribution centres and a strong local labour pool from which to recruit employees.
