New SCJ center to ease overflow

About 20 new jobs will be created

BY MICHAEL BURKE
Journal Times

Monday, January 21, 2008 11:34 PM CST

STURTEVANT — SC Johnson will move some of its warehousing operations into a new, $20 million distribution center to be built this year.

The 432,000-square-foot facility will go into construction this spring along the southern edge of Renaissance Business Park, (On Highway 20, near Highway H) officials said.

SCJ spokeswoman Kelly Semrau said the center will replace the overflow warehouse in Pleasant Prairie, which is used to store inventory that the Pleasant Prairie Regional Distribution Center can’t accommodate.

The existing warehouse there has only about four jobs, but the new, larger distribution center will create about 20 new jobs on two shifts, Semrau said.

She said the new center will provide better flexibility and efficiently to the distribution network for Racine-based SCJ.

It will handle products manufactured at the company’s Waxdale plant in Mount Pleasant before they are shipped to stores. It also will provide storage space for components that are now being housed by third parties.

The approximately 31.5-acre site lies mostly outside Renaissance park, with about five acres inside the park, Sturtevant Village Administrator Mark Janiuk said. It will be a continuation of Enterprise Drive.

“It’s definitely a very nice project for the village, and we’re happy to have them here,” Janiuk said.

Semrau said the warehouse will be built to suit for SCJ; the company will use it initially under a seven-year lease with the developer, ProLogis.

Denver-based ProLogis boasts that it is the world’s largest owner, manager and developer of distribution facilities, with 483 million square feet of industrial space in 105 markets across North America, Asia and Europe.

ProLogis leases industrial space to manufacturers, retailers, transportation companies, third-party logistics providers and other enterprises with large-scale distribution needs. It is a Fortune 1000 company and a member of the S&P 500.

Semrau said the warehouse will be constructed using the best environmental practices and will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)-certified.

SCJ expects to begin making the transition to the new facility in late 2008 or early 2009.

Privately held SC Johnson is one of the Johnson family companies, making well-known consumer products such as Glade, Off and Pledge.

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