Space to Adapt: Warehousing for Changing Demand

Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast where we go beyond pickup and delivery and dive deeper into the world of logistics, freight, and supply chain management. From industry trends to expert insights, we're here to help you navigate the complexities of modern shipping. Be sure to subscribe to Beyond Point to Point wherever you watch or listen to your favorite podcasts. And now here's your host, Joe Greek. Welcome to Beyond Point to Point, the podcast from Averitt where we take a closer look at the people, places, and ideas that move the supply chain forward. For this episode, we're getting out of the studio. I recently sat down with Ed Smith, Averitt's vice president of distribution and fulfillment inside our Nashville distribution and fulfillment center, surrounded by the freight, equipment, and activity that makes a facility like this work every day. We talk about why Nashville is becoming an increasingly important distribution market, how flexible warehousing can help companies to respond to changing inventory needs, and how transportation technology and warehousing can work together as a part of a larger supply chain strategy. Ed also gives us his perspective on what Averitt is seeing across the warehousing market today, along with a look at the continued growth of our distribution and fulfillment network. So from inside our Nashville distribution and fulfillment center, here's my conversation with Ed. Ed, thank you for being back on the show. Thanks for having me, Joe. Always a pleasure. So right now, I think we are in what we might consider the heart of the Averitt Distribution and Fulfillment Network, the Nashville Distribution and Fulfillment Center. Could you maybe tell me a bit about this location and why Nashville? So, yeah. You know, Nashville is near and dear to our heart. Right? From a company standpoint and from an ADF standpoint. So our first ADF facility was here in Nashville. Not this particular location, but it's still here in Nashville. And and we believe that that Nashville is going to be the epicenter of distribution in the future. You see population moving into the Southeast. You see consumers consuming more goods in the Southeast. You want all your product to be closer to your consumers. It just makes sense. So the sheer fact that we're in Nashville, it's born and raised within Averitt itself, lends it to a perfect marriage for us to be in this market and in this beautiful building. Super excited to be in this building too. It's been a long time coming, but now that we're here, we're up and operational, it it feels like a million dollars. You know, you make a good point. I guess most people probably wouldn't think of Nashville as a super logistics hub. Generally, you're gonna think about Memphis, Chicago, Atlanta. So tell me a bit more about the location where we are and some of the infrastructure that this facility is supporting this network. Nashville tends to be more centrally located. We can get to every core city in the Southeast through Nashville, but it also feeds the North. We still have partners, a lot of things that happen north of us as well and Northeast of us. So we just felt like Nashville is going to center itself for the next big boom. That's another great point about how cargo can get from essentially anywhere into Nashville. So what are some of the modes of transportation that we're able to support from this distribution fulfillment center? Well, know, the the key to that obviously is that we're an asset based company. So now that we have our Averitt red trucks, they flow in and out of here on a regular basis. The good thing is that we also have that support around the entire network as it comes into the country or as it exports out of the country, either way. But the good thing is from... We we start the business from an international side. We secure the customer. We move the containers over the ocean. Whether they're railed from the West Coast, whether they're railed from the East Coast, whether they're railed from from the Gulf Ports, it all rails right into Nashville. Those modes for Averitt automatically turn into drayage. And then once you get it from from the once you get it from the inland rail into our facilities, now you start talking about outbound volumes. All on Averitt assets, whether it's LTL, Truckload, you name it, we've got it covered. What kind of a business is ideal for using this distribution and fulfillment center? What kind of freight are we seeing in here? Man, you name it. We've got everything from whether it's the solar panel industry, whether it's the technology industry, whether it's data centers, whether it's our friends in heat and air conditioning. It really doesn't matter. If you need to get to your consumers, you get into the national market and we can distribute anywhere within our network. The beauty of it is is that with being a three p l that doesn't require contracts, we have the ability to be flexible. And that's key to one of the things that we we love most for our customers. If you need to come in here and see what that market looks like and get the real feel of what Nashville is, how you wanna get it to your customers, you can do that on a on a test basis. But I I guarantee you, once you get in this building, you're not gonna wanna go anywhere else. You'll get to your consumers quicker. You'll use a quality carrier in Averitt, and those two things combine to success. Flexibility. Let's talk about that. So when you're talking in terms of being flexible for a customer, what does that look like? I mean, they bound to contractually to take up certain amount of space or how does that look for them? So flexibility means a number of different things really. So the biggest thing from a flexible standpoint is when a customer looks at us and says, hey, we're not quite sure how much space we're gonna need in a in a market. So let's let's test that out. So we don't bind them to a certain amount of space along with not binding them to a contract. What we do is work up a standard operating procedure that supports what they wanna do. So we're literally we're literally taking the solution based off of what their information says. And that's where the flexibility comes in. Whether that comes in on pallets, whether it comes in on boxes floor loaded, whether we have to pick eaches, whether we have to do some kitting, you name it. Flexibility is the real key to that success. And then once a customer gets familiar with how how things are flowing, what the consumer looks like, then they start to say, we need to grow a little bit. What does it look like from a footprint standpoint? And then being flexible means being transparent. So when I talk to our customers or when our salespeople talk to our customers and our operators talk to our customers, it's all about that transparency. Here's how much space we have. If you're needing to grow, you gotta let us know sooner than later. If you need to curtail it back some, let us know that as well. There's just several different options you can use when you're being when you're being flexible. And that's what our customers love most. Well, how large is this facility? So it's 270,000 square feet and it's a good sized building. Yeah. But there were tons of opportunities for doors, parking. There's additional parking in this facility somewhere around a 180, a 185 parking positions in this building as well. And being vertically integrated with Averitt, the way we are, we have dedicated on this facility, we have Truckload in this facility, you name it, we support the entire Averitt network right here from our Nashville distribution and fulfillment center. So there's a lot of space here, a lot of freight. So how how do you and how do our customers keep track of it? Our our our warehouse management system with Extensive has been somebody we've been with now for over a decade. And this group literally has grown with Averitt. As we grow in distribution and fulfillment model, they grow right there with us. We need something extra from them, we just reach out. We... They work on a solution. The same way we provide solutions to our customers, Extensive provide solutions to us. And what it really lends to is a customer being able to see their inventory twenty four seven. It's the beauty of the web where they can go in and look at anything they wanna look at, whether it's inbound receivers coming in, inventory sitting, outbound receivers going out. They get all the bells and whistles of notifications that we all love through our phones these days. So they know everything that happens with each turn of each piece. What if they've got inventory here in Nashville, maybe they've also have products staged at our distribution fulfillment center in Dallas and maybe in Memphis. Are they able to see that all at the same time as well or is it like very separated? Nope. You can see it all. It's triangulated. We also do heat maps to explain to them which product should ship out of where, where that breaking point is to where whether Dallas should cover a shipment or whether Nashville or Atlanta or whomever. So no, it's all seamless. It gives the customer a clean view of what their entire distribution network looks like across the Southeast. You know, it's been a very interesting year for supply chain and logistics. We've had, on the trucking side, lots of drivers pulled out of the workforce, and that's led to capacity tightening in LTL, Truckload, Drayage markets. What are you seeing on your side in warehousing across the network? Hey. For the first time in a long time in the drayage market, we need stability, and Averitt provides stability. When you're an asset based carrier and the associates driving those assets are are based out of Averitt culture, get really excited. So from a Drayage standpoint, we have definitely seen an increase in our Dray markets. What we're seeing in the warehousing market is that we're getting more and more product coming in, it's getting more full, consumers are a little more apt to spend right now. So we see a lot of things from a positive growth standpoint in the warehousing market that can turn on a dime depending on a tariff flip or depending on anything that happens from a geopolitical standpoint. We all know that the world's in a little bit of turmoil. That also affects warehousing every single day, every single week. So we keep our finger on that pulse, we try to understand where it is, and then we offer our customers the best solutions that we can from a partner standpoint. And another topic I think is very interesting is we're also associate based. So the the individuals working here in the facility, they're actual Averitt employees and not temporary workers. Correct? That is correct. So the beauty of being who we are from an Averitt perspective is when when the volumes start to ebb and flow like that, we have the ability to pull from other markets. So what I mean by that is here in Nashville, just down the road is our LTL facility. We see a large burst of inbound product coming in. We typically reach out to them and say, hey, guys. Can you spare a few doc associates? Can you spare an operation support person? Maybe some leadership candidates. We often, from a team standpoint, reach out to our teammates and say, really need some help right now. Can you support us? And typically, we have it covered. And that's something our customers have grown to see as a value add to their services. They really understand that if a neighbor associate's touching a product, it's it's typically done in a better fashion, more accurately, and more swiftly. What other investments are happening in the network right now and what's coming down the road? The first thing I can tell you that's exciting is right now we're underway with construction in Houston. It's really La Porte, Texas. And that's to support our distribution fulfillment in La Porte coming right off the the Ports Of Houston. That facility should be done, I'd say, within the sixteen month range. And and the reason we're super excited about that is because it's given Averitt that footprint that we've we've been there for a few years, but now we have a home. Now we have something that we can call our own, that our associates are gonna be proud of, and and to continue to grow in a market that we see future needs. And then as you start to move east, we start looking at places like Louisville. So currently, Louisville's in the... Almost in the same stage as as La Porte. Louisville right now is probably eighteen to twenty months out. We have the land. We have the we have the clearing going on. We have a lot of development going on on on the property itself. But currently, that market is growing. It's as hot as any other market, and we really need to be poised in in in Louisville. And then the next market we wanna look into is really Charlotte. So Charlotte's a market we've been in. It's probably one of our older warehouses we've been in for quite some time. But we really have what's called... What what we wanna call is like an Averitt mega site. You're gonna have the LTL facility and the warehouses all in one location, and we're really gonna be able to provide some some what I what I consider to be some key some some key services being tied to to the same property. So I can't wait to see that happen. And then coming down the pipe in a few years, you know, you're looking at some advancements in Atlanta. We've been in the Atlanta market for several years, but we're looking to double down in Atlanta and do some more things on a larger scale. So that'll be coming on. And then who knows from there? You you really start to look at the markets and and you don't wanna saturate, but at the same time, you wanna be able to provide what our customers need. So who knows where's next, but we're looking. Well, I I know there's a lot going on with the expansion of the standalone distribution fulfillment centers. We've also recently opened up the new service center in Ocala, and I believe that includes warehousing space as well. That's correct. And I feel like there might be another location coming on board very soon. Oh, yes. So we have a... We're definitely getting ready to open Jackson, Mississippi. This is a 100,000 square feet warehouse. That should open August 1, first week... First full week of August, we should be in that building. And that's really a supplement to another building, our JMW location that's been there as well for for quite some time. Jackson's super exciting. It's across the street from our LTL facility. It offer tons of parking for our for our... Both our Truckload and our dedicated teams. And then it's got that hundred hundred thousand square feet of distribution space that our customers need. And again, it's a hot market. It's presold. It's probably gonna be close to full within the first month it's open. And lot of interest in Jackson. We have other LTL facilities that are coming up that are also gonna have warehousing attached to them. And what we've known and grown to show over the years, places like Charleston and what we did in Norfolk and what we've done in Savannah and Jacksonville where we've added warehouses to it, it's just such a value add for our customers. And then the ability, once again, to be flexible. You can store some things, create shipments. So many good things come out of a few a few extra thousand square feet or a few extra 100 square feet that really people just didn't didn't know a long time ago. It's really a value add to our facilities. And I think from a property standpoint, we've done a really good job about learning what those can do and what they look like moving forward. Well, this is very exciting. And I just can't tell you how excited I personally am to see this grow and to be able to work with you and your team and to have you on the show. And I look forward to us being able to do this again to talk about future growth. Yes. When you when you talk about excited, I get giddy. When we start talking about where we're going and what we're gonna do, The key is to... Let's keep our eye on the ball on what's happening currently. Let's stay close to our customers. Let's provide solutions that that make sense. And then at the end of the day, where do we go next and how do we how do we duplicate that everywhere we go? I I can't wait to see what the future brings. I don't like to rush into that. I do wanna savor what's happening in front of me right now, but at the same time, I think we're we're poised to handle anything that's gonna be thrown at us. Well said. Well, thank you very much for being on the show today, Ed. Thank you, Joe. Appreciate it. Thanks again to Ed Smith for joining me and for giving us the opportunity to have this conversation right in the middle of our Nashville distribution and fulfillment center. One thing that really stood out to me from our discussion is just how much flexibility matters in today's supply chain. Whether it's the amount of space a company needs, where inventory is positioned, or how that freight ultimately reaches the customer, The businesses need options that can change along with their needs. And as Ed shared, Nashville is just one part of a distribution and fulfillment network that continues to grow and evolve alongside our customers. Thanks for listening to Beyond Point to Point. To learn more about Averitt distribution and fulfillment, visit averitt.com/distribution. Until next time, I'm Joe Greek, and thanks for tuning in.