JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (March 25, 2009) — Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations (BATO) has opened its newest distribution center, a 1 million-plus-sq.-ft. warehouse in Jacksonville capable of handling more than 1 million tires.
The Jacksonville center will supply tires and automotive parts to Florida, Georgia and North and South Carolina, as well as tires imported from Latin America to the entire U.S. and tires imported from Asia to customers in the eastern half of the U.S., the tire maker said.
“The strategic location of the Jacksonville distribution center not only provides a tactical port of entry for our products, it also gives us the ability to provide overnight delivery service to virtually all of the customers serviced from this center,” said Steve Shelton, vice president, logistics supply chain management for Nashville, Tenn.-based BATO.
“The people, community and location of Jacksonville were critical factors in our decision to develop a center there back in early 2007,” he said, calling the opening the latest step in a modernization of the company's North America distribution center system.
The Jacksonville center is BATO's seventh in North America and the largest of them. It boasts more than 200 dock doors and is capable of handling more than 50 trailer loads of product in and out of the facility daily. The center employs approximately 80 full-time employees.
Bridgestone broke ground on the facility in August 2007. At that time it estimated the investment in the project at $44 million.