VALDOSTA — To accommodate the growth and expansion of its businesses, Southern Warehousing Systems held a groundbreaking ceremony Thursday at the site of the company’s new 80,000 square foot warehouse in the Perimeter East Industrial Park.

Southern Warehousing Systems is the parent company of Outsource Logistics and Outsource Delivery, which in turn operates the new U-Pak mobile mini-storage business.

Co-owners Paul Everett and Lee Smith have been in business for nearly five years in Valdosta, offering third party warehousing and distribution, nationwide transportation, deliveries, and mobile storage units as an alternative to traditional fixed site storage units. They even once stored 77 million beer cans made by Ball Container for the Miller Brewing Company in Albany. Everett said the partners selected the site in Perimeter East due largely to its location. “It was a combination of factors, including the four-lane highway, access to the interstate and access to the Norfolk Southern railroad.”

JMT Construction is building the warehouse for the company, which has plans for future expansion already in mind. “This is just Phase One. We have 11 acres, and we’ve got the capabilities on this site to build 250,000 square feet,” said Everett.

The company outgrew its present warehouse on Clay Road, and Everett said the partners felt it was time to build their own facility. Southern Warehousing worked with the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority to find the site, and qualified as an existing industry for incentives to stay and grow their business locally.

Ken Garren, executive director of the Valdosta-Lowndes County Industrial Authority, said it is part of the Authority’s mission to look after companies already in place as well as to attract new industry to the area.

“We feed on ourselves. As one business grows, another that serves it grows as well,” Garren said. “This was a unique opportunity to help someone local. They’re clean, growing and stable. We’re investing in them as a company, and it’s a good return on our investment.”

Garren said the Authority was able to offer the land to Southern Warehousing at $13,000 per acre, and after allowances for easements, the total price was $130,000. Based on its capital investments and additional employees, the company also qualified for a favorable tax rate for seven years.

“They get affordable land in return for the jobs and investment they’re making,” Garren said.

Southern Warehousing currently employs 25 and has plans to add an additional 12 to 15 new jobs.

Everett said the business is growing due to a nationwide trend to outsource everything from distribution to human resources.

“This allows our customers on the West Coast to position their products on the East Coast, which eliminates three days of transportation time. And they don’t have the building, utilities and labor to pay for,” he said.

The company’s U-Pak storage business is also taking off. Containers five feet wide by eight feet long by seven feet tall are delivered to residential and commercial customers who pack them themselves. The containers are then picked up and stored in the company’s warehouse, and customers can access them at any time.

Construction on the building is scheduled for completion in May 2004. Southern Warehousing is the latest business to locate in Perimeter East Industrial Park, which is also home to ERCO Worldwide, formerly Sterling Pulp Chemical, Postle Distributors, and the new American Drill Bushings facility which recently relocated to Valdosta from Southern California.



To contact Business Editor Kay Harris, please call 244-3400, ext. 280.