Illinois Retail Logistics Company Expands into North Texas » Dallas Innovates

Kevin Williamson, CEO of RJW Logistics Group [Photo: RJW Logistics Group]

An Illinois-based logistics company has taken nearly 600,000 square feet of space to become the first major company to lease Mesquite’s new Alcott Logistics Station, bringing more than 200 jobs to North Texas.

RJW Logistics Group Inc. officials say the Mesquite facility will increase its total area to nearly 6 million square feet. Located on East Scyene Road, the new $130 million facility is a project by Urban Logistics Realty. RJW provides supply chain solutions primarily to consumer packaged goods and food & beverage customers,

“Establishing an operational hub in Dallas supports our ability to more effectively meet the needs of our existing customer base and onboard new consumer goods suppliers in a growing region,” RJW Logistics CEO Kevin Williamson said in a statement. “Central warehousing is a game changer for suppliers.”

Alcott logistic station in Mesquite [Courtesy rendering]

Regional warehouses offer better inventory control

The company anticipates that the new warehouse will be operational by mid-2023.

The Mesquite warehouse is expected to ship more than 36 million cases per year, serving 200 customers and employing about 225 warehouse workers, the company said. The camp is RJW’s first in the greater Dallas area and will serve as a showcase location for RJW’s “single inventory” model in the South.

As a full-service retail logistics company, the company wants to serve the “entire middle mile” of its customers.

The company’s single-node model allows RJW to control inventory from one strategic location to reduce overhead, labor, transportation and other costs. That helps customers “win by reducing costs and inventory while increasing efficiencies and improving scorecard performance,” Williamson said.

By focusing on retail consolidation, RJW is able to “achieve 10% to 30% cost savings and over 98% on-time delivery performance for our customers,” a company spokesman told Dallas Innovates. Customers can benefit from shorter lead times, reduced “safety stocks”, simplified inventory replenishment and improved inventory levels, it said.

“Innovative Better Ways”

Technology matters: CEO Williamson says the company uses data and technology systems to determine which of its two regional centers is most beneficial and cost-effective for a supplier. The company leverages “a wealth of proprietary data” to drive decision making, drive development and help customers drive business efficiencies.

“We’re continually inventing better ways to process our data so we can keep our costs down, which helps fight inflationary pressures and trickles down to our customers,” the company said.

RJW Logistics currently serves customers from multiple consolidation warehouses in the central US and provides transportation and warehousing services to major retailers including Walmart, Sam’s Club, Aldi, Kroger, Amazon and Walgreens. Until its model replication in Dallas, the company said RJW’s warehouse campus was in Illinois, where the company operates 10 facilities.

RJW also offers services such as retail consolidation, retailer compliance, advanced analytics and reporting platforms, enterprise software solutions, integration services, value-added services, and asset-based transportation.

Logistics boom in Mesquite and throughout North Texas

The Alcott Logistics Station is Urban Logistics Realty’s second major project in Mesquite and one of the largest industrial projects in that city. Urban Logistics has plans for more than 1.5 million square feet of warehousing and shipping facilities on nearly 100 acres.

Urban Logistics Realty built Urban District 30 Industrial Park, a 980,000-square-foot, five-building industrial development off Interstate 30 in Mesquite. The first phase of this project was sold to New York-based investor KKR.

Dallas-Fort Worth is the nation’s fastest growing industrial market with more than 80 million square feet of buildings in the pipeline.

Get on the list.
Dallas innovates every day.

CONTINUE READING

Omni Logistics’ new 52,000-square-foot headquarters in the Cypress Waters development “strike a balance of collaboration and privacy,” the company says. The 85 Dallas-based employees feature a semi-open seating plan, outside decks for collaboration and socializing, and “spa rooms” for nursing or relaxation. And oh yes – lots of high-tech business features too. The new headquarters, designed by HKS Architects, will be powered by 100% renewable energy, according to the company.
GreenPath only uses alternative fuel vehicles to haul cargo for Amazon, UPS, USPS and others. The company is now ordering 50 Hypertruck ERX units from Texas-based Hyliion. The Hypertruck’s electric powertrain is charged by an onboard natural gas generator.
Buttram says there are “so many careers to choose from — and we’re making sure Mesquite brings together the best and brightest!” The city plans to do so on October 14 by celebrating its third annual Manufacturing Day at Vanguard High School, 4201 Faithon P. Lucas Sr. Blvd. in Mesquite. Presented by the Mesquite Business Retention and Expansion Task Force, the event aims to connect Mesquite ISD juniors and seniors—as well as Dallas College students—with local manufacturers and manufacturing careers.
CEOs of the 100 fastest growing private companies in the Dallas area met with the SMU Cox Caruth Institute for Entrepreneurship on Thursday to kick off its annual celebration of entrepreneurship. Now the countdown begins to the November 2 unveiling of the institute, which is the fastest growing private company in Dallas-Fort Worth. Here are the contenders.
University of North Texas faculty members Alexandra Ponette-González and Matthew Fry will soon begin a five-year study — supported by a $1.5 million grant from the National Science Foundation — to examine how digital Tools like i-Tree influence the sustainability and equity of urban forests. Cities across the US use this technology to make decisions about our urban forests – which include all the trees and shrubs that exist on public and private land in each city. The UNT team will work with researchers across the US to see how the technologies are affecting equitable access, involving local voters in decision-making, representing people’s values and preferences, and influencing air pollution elimination. “Theoretically, digital tools are …