Allen County: In the Midst of 'Auto Alley'

Northwest Ohio's Allen County and transportation are nearly synonymous. The county has a century-long heritage of making things that move -- from the steam locomotives of the early 1900s to today's Ford engines, General Dynamics tanks and Superior Coach stretch limos.

Allen County has the transportation assets and logistics services to support distribution. The county is right in the middle of the I-75 auto axis, putting Lima area shippers within overnight distance of 63 percent of U.S. manufacturers.

As the site of the Baldwin Hamilton locomotive manufacturing plant, Lima developed as a rail hub early on. Today, four Class I lines converge in the city -- Conrail, Norfolk Southern, CSX and CN North America. Over 40 LTL and TL carriers serve the Allen County region daily.

The heavy flow of transportation equipment from the county's factories mandated that Allen County and its largest city, Lima, develop a solid base of distribution services. Today, Lima's increasingly diverse industrial community takes advantage of those transportation linkages. For example, Procter & Gamble distributes its liquid detergent nationwide from Lima. The U.S. Postal Service recently located a 75,000-sq. ft. bulk mail distribution center in the city, selecting Lima over 15 other contenders.

Serving the shipping needs of area industry are several logistics suppliers.

Right Distribution Centers handles specialty chemicals for the region's substantial agricultural industry.

Warehouse Associates operates one million sq. ft. of space in Lima, plus additional units in Cleveland and Columbus. The company stores and distributes such products as engines for Ford and newsprint for the Midwestern edition of USA Today. The company ships an average of 875 truckloads of goods a day coast to coast.

Some companies use Lima's logistics services to avoid the capital expenditures, operating costs and personnel associated with their own warehouse. Others, such as manufacturers that are building inventory in advance of a sales promotion, may need warehouse space for only a short period during the year. Huffy Bicycles, for example, has a big demand for the Christmas season and in early spring, so the Celina manufacturing plant stores the extra inventory at the Lima warehouse.

Still others are motivated by the desire to run their factories at a steady pace, and they store excess inventory in the warehouse to cover spikes in sales.

	Warehouse Associates becomes an extended work force for many area manufacturers. It builds store displays for Procter & Gamble and repairs faulty auto components for Ford, among many services it offers.
Warehouse Associates operates a one million-sq. ft., rail-served logistics center in Lima.

With a good stock of industrial parks, Allen County has the prepared sites distributors are looking for. For those that need immediate space, a 50,000-sq. ft. building, expandable to 100,000 sq. ft., is available on a nine-acre site in Central Point Industrial Park. Allen County also has competitively priced greenfield sites.

A good-sized city, Lima (pop. 45,300) is the shopping anchor for the surrounding 10 counties and a medical hub, with two hospitals. It has the cultural amenities (including its own symphony orchestra) and support services to underpin substantial new economic development.