Dive Brief:
- Workwear retailer Duluth Trading Company is building a new distribution center in Adairsville, Georgia, at the Ashley Capital building, according to a press release.
- The facility, slated to open in 2023, will be the apparel brand’s “first-ever automated fulfillment center,” CEO and President Sam Sato said in a statement. By investing in robotics and expanding it’s fulfillment network, the company aims to meet rising consumer demand.
- Building its Georgia fulfillment center is also part of the brand’s plan to expand digitally and grow its brick-and-mortar footprint. Duluth Trading currently has 65 retail stores.
Dive Insight:
As it pursues growth, Duluth Trading Company is expanding its distribution network.
The company tapped Bastian Solutions to create the new fulfillment center. Marvin Logan, senior vice president of solutions delivery at Bastian Solutions, noted in a statement that the new facility will be able to process and ship 160,000 units daily. Meanwhile, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp touted the state as an ideal location allowing companies to transport products to most of the U.S. within two days on the road or a two-hour flight.
“We are thrilled to open Duluth Trading’s first-ever automated fulfillment center in Adairsville, Georgia,” Sam Sato, president and CEO of Duluth Trading, said in a statement. “With an expanded fulfillment network and state-of-the-art robotics, this new facility positions us to better serve our customers nationwide while adding hundreds of new jobs to the Bartow County community.”
The fulfillment center will create more than 300 jobs and amounts to a $53 million investment in Bartow County. Once open, Duluth Trading will hire for a range of full-time, part-time and seasonal positions at the distribution center.
Duluth Trading is following in the footsteps of other major retailers that have planned new fulfillment centers to meet rising demand over the past year. In September 2021, Chewy announced plans to open three automated fulfillment centers to increase productivity and lessen the impact of labor shortages. In April, Macy’s announced a $584 million fulfillment center set to open in North Carolina in 2024 to enhance its omnichannel operations. Walmart also plans to build four new fulfillment centers over the next three years, a project that is expected to create more than 4,000 jobs.
But as other brands and retailers scale up their fulfillment operations, Amazon is taking a step back. Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky noted that the company will slow its spending on fulfillment centers and hinted that it might instead redirect its resources toward transportation capacity this year.
