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FORT WAYNE, Ind. (September 22, 2002) -- FedEx Ground Package System, an overnight delivery business at 4750 Industrial Road in Centennial Industrial Park, wants to build a bigger facility and hire more people to accommodate an increase in business it expects to see here in the coming years. The current work force of 58 will increase by 22 employees and independent contractors during a four-year period.
The plans call for building a $2.2 million facility at the Wayne Haven Industrial Park in New Haven. Other locations in the industrial park have been designated Economic Revitalization Areas in order to gain tax abatements for construction projects and Fedex will seek similar incentives.
The New Haven facility will be much larger than the one FedEx operates in Fort Wayne, said Doug Snyder, who handles FedEx real estate development for Scannell Properties, an Indianapolis commercial real estate firm. The future facility is described in the county planning department as a 56,000-square-foot distribution center/warehouse that could be expanded to 67,088 square feet.
Construction could start next month and be completed by August 2003, the filing said. The business plans to install about $1.2 million in new material handling equipment in the new facility.
The filing showed steady revenue growth for the business here, increasing to $6.1 million for its 2002 fiscal year, from $5 million in 2001 and $4.7 million in 2000.
"FedEx has had good growth nationally, and Fort Wayne is like a lot of (its) other locations, nationally," Snyder said.
For its first quarter ended Aug. 31, Memphis, Tenn.-based FedEx Corp. reported earnings rose 45 percent to $158 million, or 52 cents a share, compared with the same period last year. The company's revenue for the quarter rose 8 percent to $5.5 billion.
The filing projected that a dozen of the workers added at the new facility would be independent contractors, who currently average $55,000 at FedEx.
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