Borders (Ann Arbor, Mich.) officially opened its new Northeast Distribution Center in mid-June. The 600,000-sq.-ft. distribution center is located in Carlisle, Pa. Ultimately employing 500 people, the facility will process and ship books to more than 430 Borders and Waldenbooks stores in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.
The facility features advanced technology and sorting equipment designed to increase efficiencies and provide pre-sorted book inventory to stores. Company managers expect that the facility will process and ship more than four million books a month, significantly more than was processed by the company's former 125,000-sq.-ft. distribution center in Middletown, Pa., which will close this year. That facility employed approximately 100 employees, about half of which have already transferred to the new operation.
In early 2008, the company plans to add book return and re-shipment work for all of Borders and Waldenbooks stores in the U.S. to the duties handled by the Carlisle facility.
"We are thrilled to open this new facility, which represents an important step in our company's multi-year strategic initiative to enhance the efficiency of our national distribution network," said Mark Palmucci, senior vice president of merchandise operations and supply chain for Borders Group. "In total, our distribution facilities, which number six in the U.S. including this new facility, serve more than 1,200 stores by processing and shipping more than 240 million books per year."
Source: Borders Group.
