Fortune 500 company expands into Lehigh Valley with new $4 million distribution center
It opened a 350,000-square-foot Northeast Distribution Center in Palmer Township.
The company makes almost every product you can think of involved in electrification and automation. The facility will stock more than 5000 products used in construction, transportation, and utilities.
The new facility sits right off the Route 33 Chrin interchange - joining several other warehouses - an area that some have criticized for lacking the restaurants and retail originally promised.
The company says the facility will actually reduce travel times by 50% and be better for the environment.
"By moving closer to our customers we're reducing 25,000 miles a week on transportation. Over 4,000 tons of CO2 emissions will not occur because we opened this building," said Ken Shotts, Vice President of Logistics and Inventory.
"And we make sure everything we do here is sustainable. To be able to reduce the overall carbon footprint of anything we do for our end customers. Whether it be a utility all the way down to a commercial strip mall," said Executive Vice President and General Manager Ralph Donati.
The move will bring at least 100 new jobs to Northampton County to start.
"One of the things we're really focusing is on developing our floor associates into those other roles. So just because you start as a floor associate doesn't mean you're gonna stay a floor associate," Shotts said.
"We did 350,000 square feet with the intention to be able to grow over the next 5 years as the market grows, our customer's grow we want to make sure we got the footprint to grow in. As we do that, we expect to continue to add people so that we can satisfy everybody," Donati said.