FedEx Ground has selected a 52-acre site to build a new distribution centre that will complementthe operations of three existing facilities in the Atlanta, Georgia area as part of an ongoing
national expansion plan.Governor Nathan Deal attended a formal ground breaking ceremony at the site in Norcross, onFriday (February 18). Construction will begin shortly, the company said.
The Norcross site was chosen because of its ease of access to major highways, its proximity tocustomers’ distribution centers and a strong local labor pool from which to recruit employees.
The 215,000 square-foot facility is being built on Atlantic Avenue near Jimmy Carter Boulevardand is estimated to cost approximately $55 million, including land, construction andmaterial-handling equipment.
Scheduled to open in the fall of 2012, the new facility will feature the latest automatedmaterial-handling technology, designed to process 15,000 packages per hour, and will dispatch asmany as 75 pickup and delivery vans each day. At full capacity, the number of vans dispatched toservice the local community could reach 175. The initial workforce for the new facility isprojected to include 240 full-time and part-time employees and 75 independent contractoropportunities, all of which will transfer from existing Norcross-area facilities.
“Enhancing FedEx Ground’s distribution capability in the Southeast is critical to increasing thesize, speed and efficiency of our network,” said Robert E. Holcombe, vice president of the southernregion for FedEx Ground. “This new facility is evidence of the Southeast region’s increasedpresence in the distribution and logistics business, and the growing confidence of local shippersthat we are their best choice for their ground shipping needs.”
The new facility is part of a nationwide network expansion to boost daily package volumecapacity and further enhance the speed and service capabilities of the FedEx Ground network. Sinceembarking on the multi-year expansion programme in 2002, FedEx Ground has opened 10 new hubs andnine automated pickup and delivery stations featuring the most advanced material-handling systems;and has expanded or relocated more than 500 local facilities. Accompanying the growth ininfrastructure, average daily package volumes in the FedEx Ground network have increased by morethan 70% from 2.1 million in 2003 to more than 3.6 million today.
The network enhancements have resulted in acceleration of ground service delivery by one day ormore in most states. FedEx Ground now delivers more than 60% of packages in two days or less andmore than 80% of packages in three days or less. FedEx Ground claims it provides faster service tomore places in the United States than the UPS Ground service. These service advancements havecontributed to the success of FedEx Ground in the competitive small-package-shipping segment.
