UPS Canada expands strategic logistics campus

Continued growth brings total of Ontario-based campus to more than 975,000 square feet

Jeff Berman, Group News Editor -- Logistics Management, 6/12/2008

BURLINGTON, Ontario—UPS Canada announced yesterday it has expanded its strategic logistics campus in Burlington, Ontario.

The expansion is comprised of a third distribution center totaling more than 175,000 square feet to go along with its previous two existing buildings on the campus that accounted for 800,000 square feet and opened in September 2006. UPS said the main reason for the expansion was due to the face that it had hit maximum capacity with its previous two buildings, as well as 55,000 square feet of storage space.

The logistics campus focuses on various services for shippers, including order fulfillment, freight receiving, shipping preparation, and inventory management according to UPS. It currently has 500 employees, with the company expecting another 15-to-20 jobs to be added as a result of the expansion. And part of the existing campus is focused on the healthcare sector, specifically the pharmaceutical and medical device industries.

UPS Spokesperson Susan Rosenberg told LM that the new building has a multi-purpose approach, focusing on things like returns management, high-tech, and retail for Canadian distribution.

“If a major retailer is focused on something like business-to-consumer e-commerce and has returns coming back in to our facility and they supply whoever it is,” said Rosenberg, “there may be a disposition that it could move back out to stock in a hard footprint retail location, returned to stock for further e-commerce, or aggregated into inventory and then moved cross-border into the U.S. What we are doing here varies by customer.”

She added that other components of the logistics campus are critical parts replenishment and critical parts inventory management for high-value technology components and computer products, due to the growth of consumer electronics ranging from personal computers to hand-held PDAs and Blackberries, among others. 

The new addition of 175,000 square feet to the logistics campus will be very helpful for item returns in terms of floor space, said Rosenberg, whereas things like inventory management and pure distribution typically do not require as much space because it is more dependent on racking systems and can be done vertically.

“One of the biggest things we needed here was more floor expanse for returns processing,” said Rosenberg.

UPS Vice President of Business Solutions for UPS Supply Chain Logistics Jan Macaulay said in a statement that UPS is focused on giving Canadian businesses a competitive edge, and the services offered by this expanded facility will increase the efficiency of its customers' supply chains.

"For us, involvement at the local level will remain a key aspect of our operations, and we look forward to a long, healthy and prosperous future in Burlington," said Macaulay.