Intelligrated breaks ground on headquarters expansion

Automated materials handling services provider Intelligrated announced earlier this week that it has broke ground on expanding its headquarters in Mason, Ohio.

The company is building a 108,000 square-foot building, which company officials said will be dedicated to its engineering, customer service, and R&D staffing, and testing facilities. The roughly $15 million in funding for this effort was made possible through an incentive package from the state of Ohio and the city of Mason to support job local growth, according to company officials. Construction is expected to be completed in October.

They added that the company plans to move administrative personnel into the new building to accommodate a planned expansion in engineering, customer service and R&D staffing, with 450 employees working out of the facility.

Intelligrated Vice President and General Counsel Mark Tefend said in an interview that this expansion is a part of Intelligrated’s continued growth in this market segment, which he said is a testimony to its effective integration of FKI beginning in 2009.

“During our integration, we continued to service customers through innovative, efficient engineering, manufacture, installation and aftermarket support,” said Tefend. “The current expansion is based on this, but also looks to our growth over the next 3-to-5 year period.”

In terms of the biggest benefits of this expansion for Intelligrated customers, Tefend cited centralized manufacturing, engineering and customer support and the infusion of new talent and technical innovation. These things, he explained, enable the company to maximize efficient communications and dealings by and between the various technical, sales and management disciplines needed to provide best in class customer support and innovation.

What’s more, he said that this expansion will provide Intelligrated with the space needed to continue to grow its research and development team, which will help the company continue to develop innovative solutions for its clients.

“[This] groundbreaking is a milestone in Intelligrated’s ongoing growth as one of the most technologically-advanced players in the material handling industry,” said Intelligrated CEO Chris Cole in a statement. “The new building will help us continue to expand our footprint, grow our technical staff and create advanced productivity solutions. We appreciate the incentives from the state of Ohio and the city of Mason which help support our expansion.”