Resin distributor M. Holland Co. has occupied a new warehousing center in Coal City, Ill.
The move has allowed Northbrook, Ill.-based M. Holland to empty its longtime warehouse in Northlake, Ill. M. Holland will be the main client of the center, which is owned and operated by G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation.
M. Holland has designated the Coal City site as its 15th Gold Standard Distribution Center. The GSDC program was created as part of the firm's national warehousing strategy to streamline its operations.
Each GSDC location is a strategically placed, full-service facility, offering packaging, bulk transfer, warehousing and rail access. The new 400,000-square-foot facility in Coal City provides paved access for nearly 800 rail cars and a fleet of bulk trucks.
The site also is close to some of the largest intermodal yards in the world, allowing M. Holland to have access to all major U.S. ports for import and export opportunities, officials said in a July 26 news release.
They added that with the move, M. Holland now expects an immediate and significant improvement in rail transit times.
Officials previously said that the site is intended to provide resin to domestic customers, but could be used as a secondary export hub as well.
In a July 26 phone interview, Marc Fern, M. Holland commercial vice president, said the Coal City site "provides us with more capabilities than we've ever had access to before, and it's all under one roof."
In the release, Operations Vice President Pete Nutley said that the transportation industry "is experiencing unique challenges, such as trucker shortages and increased logistics costs."
"We've been building long-term, strategic relationships with logistics partners like G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation to stay ahead of these challenges and deliver the best fulfillment services possible to our clients," he added.
The new site also will enhance M. Holland's ability to provide best-in-class experiences to clients across North America and Latin America, Nutley said.
The full scale of operations provided by the new site — including transportation modes, bulk transfer, and packaging — will create a national one-stop-shop for clients, according to Jordan Hoffman, vice president of G&D Trucking/Hoffman Transportation.
"We've partnered with M. Holland for the past 30 years in transportation and warehousing, and we've been a mutual source of growth for our businesses," he said.
G&D invested $20 million in the Coal City project, which is expected to employ 50 in its first year. Coal City is located about 60 miles southwest of Chicago and about 10 miles from G&D Hoffman's headquarters in Channahon, Ill. The firm built all of its own rail track for the Coal City site.
Coal City's location also allows rail traffic to avoid most of Chicago's rail grid, which can slow down deliveries. Officials previously said that avoiding Chicago rail traffic could reduce delivery times by 10-14 days.
Shipments from resin plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast — where large amounts of polyethylene resin capacity are being added — can reach Chicago in seven days.
M. Holland was founded in 1960 and now has 4,000 customers. The firm now has annual sales of more than $1 billion, selling more than 1.4 billion pounds of resin per year from more than 20 material suppliers.
