Chillicothe: The Logical Choice

If a shipper had only two distribution locations for serving North America, the logical choice to serve the eastern U.S. is Chillicothe.

According to a report by Chicago Consulting, the shortest distance to U.S. population centers for a shipper with a two-warehouse distribution network is this south central Ohio city and Fresno, Calif. The average distance to serve the eastern market is just 470 miles from Chillicothe.

Chillicothe industry agrees that it's easy to reach major markets from south central Ohio. Ross County (pop. 72,800) is just an hour's drive south of Columbus and 90 miles northeast of Cincinnati. Three U.S. highways, including the four-laned U.S. 23, lace the county.

The north-south U.S. 23 is scheduled to become part of the new I-73, which will run from Michigan to South Carolina. It will connect with the east-west routes Ohio 32 (the Appalachian Highway) and U.S. 35, one of the most popular truck routes in Ohio. U.S. 35, which runs through Ross and Fayette counties on its way to Dayton, will be four-laned this year.

PPG Industries cited "location, location, location" when it invested in a 230,000-sq. ft. distribution center in Ross County in the 1980s. The company liked Chillicothe's central location to serve PPG's 120 branches in the U.S and in Canada. The center supplies the branches, as well as over 100 factory buyers, with automotive replacement glass. This is the company's sole automotive glass distribution center in North America.

Also important to PPG, says Laurence M. Hanchin, manager of the distribution center, is the fact that the company has been able to get community and county support for its expansions, which have doubled the size of the Chillicothe operations.

"Whenever we've had a facility expansion or upgraded our technology at the plant, the Community Improvement Corp. has been able to pull together the forces to get things done," says Hanchin.

Other major distribution facilities in Ross County include Mead's 350,000-sq. ft.distribution unit for its Fine Paper Division. That company, which has been operating in the county since the late 1800s, selected a site in Chillicothe's Great Seal Industrial Park.

Kenworth operates its largest truck manufacturing plant in Chillicothe, moving to the town 22 years ago because of its location near the center of the truck market and its proximity to primary suppliers. Several suppliers, like interior outfitter Landmark Industries, have been attracted to Chillicothe to serve Kenworth. Other auto industry suppliers, like YSK, a Japanese maker of auto suspension parts, and AlliedSignal Braking Systems, find Ross County an excellent location for just-in-time distribution.

A trainable labor force and a centralized location to distribute to North America drew PPG's Worldwide Distribution Warehouse to Chillicothe in the 1980s.

Another interesting possibility for Ross County is a pick and ship operation. The local Chillicothe Telephone Co. has installed fiber optics in the county and has the capacity to handle a large telemarketing operation, where customers can call in orders to be shipped out of a Ross County location.

One item of particular note for shippers is the availability of a rail-served site just off the intersection of U.S. routes 23, 35 and 50. The 60-acre site and its 430,000-sq. ft. of warehouse space and offices was occupied by Mill's Pride, a cabinet maker which is consolidating its warehouse operations closer to its home base.