Walmart’s ‘Need For Speed’ Leads to Indiana
The Bentonville, Ark.-based company will construct and equip a new 1.2 million square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Plainfield creating up to 303 new jobs by 2016.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and one of the fastest growing online retailers, announced plans today to locate an e-commerce fulfillment center here, creating up to 303 new jobs by 2016.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based company will construct and equip a new 1.2 million square-foot facility in Plainfield, Illinois.
The facility, which will allow the company to process and ship orders for its fast-growing online operation, will be operational in early 2015 at the AllPoints Midwest distribution park developed by Indiana-based Duke Realty and Browning.
“When the world’s largest companies consider where to grow, Indiana is skyrocketing to the top of the location list,” said Governor Mike Pence. “Walmart would be hard pressed to find a stronger business climate and commitment to lower taxes and less regulation than the environment offered in the Hoosier State. We are thrilled to welcome this global company’s growth in Indiana, a state that works.”
Walmart, which currently employs 2.2 million associates worldwide, including more than 36,000 in Indiana, plans to begin hiring for full-time positions at the new fulfillment center in October.
Direct Ocean & Intermodal Route from Asia into Indianapolis
With all eyes on the possible slowdown or shutdown of LA/LB ports this month, we thought it would be a good time to remind Indianapolis shippers and those shippers considering Indianapolis for their next distribution hub, as Wal-Mart recently announced and Amazon continues grow, that there is another solution to move cargo from the Pac-Rim countries into Indianapolis that does not involve LA/LB.
The solution is to enter the North American market through either the Prince Rupert or Vancouver port, then directly route the freight into the Indianapolis IRR-CN intermodal ramp.
The advantages of this solution include:
- Improved transit times.
- Averages 20-22 day transit from Pacific-Rim ports into Indianapolis.
- Fewer days on the water.
- 57 hours sailing time closer than LA/LB.
- 24 hours sailing time closer than Seattle.
- Cargo by-passes the congested Chicago intermodal ramps.
- Local control of final delivery within the Indianapolis’ distribution parks.
- Eliminates dray capacity and cost issues related to LA/LB freight routed through the Chicago intermodal ramps.
- Gives shippers the ability to control container drops and pulls from local market.
- Significantly reduces the opportunity for demurrage charges.
- Better control of local docks.
- Cost improvement over the LA/LB service.
- Dray and chassis capacity improvement by ramping over Indianapolis, instead of Chicago.
This direct solution for Indianapolis is available for both imports and exports.
As a final note, there are a number of reasons why Wal-Mart, Amazon and other ecommerce fulfillment centers are located in Indianapolis, with the biggest being over 70% of the population is within two days ground shipping.
The closer the DC fulfillment center is to their final customer, the less impact ecommerce shippers have to their bottom line, as they up the ante on free freight offers on 2 day or less transit promises.
“By combining large-scale online fulfillment centers with Walmart’s distribution centers, world-class transportation network and 4,200 stores, we have the ability to get incredibly close to our customers to deliver orders faster and at a lower cost,” said Brent Beabout, senior vice president of supply chain and logistics for Walmart Global eCommerce. “This center alone will allow cost-effective delivery to more than 160 million people in just one to two days.”
The Indiana Economic Development Corporation offered Wal-Mart.com USA LLC up to $2,930,000 in conditional tax credits and up to $200,000 in training grants based on the company’s job creation plans. These tax credits are performance-based, meaning until Hoosiers are hired, the company is not eligible to claim incentives. The town of Plainfield will consider additional incentives at the request of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership.
“Plainfield is pleased to welcome Walmart to Plainfield in the AllPoints Midwest industrial business park,” said Robin Brandgard, president of the Plainfield Town Council. “They join many other Fortune 500 companies who have chosen to locate distribution and light industrial facilities in our premier business parks, currently with over 32 million square feet of space under roof. We are confident they and their employees will find Plainfield to be a community of values with an excellent quality of life.”
Walmart joins a long list of companies that have recently selected Indiana as home the for their logistics operations. Indiana’s central location places it within a single day’s haul to 80 percent of the U.S. population. With two maritime ports that are their own foreign trade zones and more than 4,500 miles of Class 1 railway running through the state, Indiana is one of the best locations in the country for efficiently expediting products, not just nationally, but internationally.
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