Menlo Worldwide Logistics and The Dow Chemical Co. announced the formal opening of a 134,000-square-foot warehousing and distribution operation in Bay City, Mich. The new operation is housed in Monitor Township’s Valley Center Technology Park, in a former manufacturing facility at 5300 Mackinaw Road that had been vacant for many years.
The property recently underwent a major renovation and upgrade, which converted the building into a modern energy-efficient purpose-designed facility that will provide strategic warehousing and distribution services for Dow Wolff Cellulosics products manufactured at Dow Michigan Operations in Midland.
“Bay City is ideally located for the business solution we are implementing for this important Dow product line,” says Mike Wood, Menlo’s director of operations based in Midland. “We’re pleased to welcome Bay City to Menlo’s operating network. This is an excellent opportunity to invest in and create new jobs for the community while strategically expanding our relationship with Dow.” Menlo operates other logistics programs for Dow in several other Michigan communities as well as throughout the United States.
“This strategic location in Bay County will provide great value to Dow by reducing costs while maximizing efficiencies,” says Anne Adams, North America Supply Chain Leader for Dow Wolff Cellulosics. “And this project is another example of our commitment to the Great Lakes Bay Region.”
The Bay City facility created six new local jobs, with Menlo and will provide a variety of inventory management, warehousing and fulfillment services, including receipt, put-away, storage and shipping of cellulose products, which are packaged in drums, bags and supersacks. The Dow Wolff Cellulosics products are used in several applications, including pharmaceutical, food and building materials.
Concurrent with the opening of the new facility, Menlo and Dow also designed a new transportation management program for inbound and outbound freight shipment. Previously, 53-foot semi-trucks would haul product from Midland to an existing Menlo warehouse at Grove City, Ohio. Under the new program, Bay City will receive inbound shipments directly from Dow’s nearby Midland plant and will provide fulfillment of orders direct to customers.
By strategically establishing the new Bay City distribution center, and re-engineering its transportation network to reduce costs and increase direct-to-customer shipping, Menlo and Dow say they have eliminated nearly 450 interstate trucking moves representing some 130,000 miles annually. In addition to saving wear and tear on highway infrastructure, the re-engineered solution is projected to conserve annually some 20,400 gallons of diesel fuel, which eliminates nearly 460,000 pounds of CO2 emissions from being introduced into the environment. The carbon footprint reduction is the equivalent to removing about 40 cars from the nation’s highways.
