KENT, WA (BRAIN) — Seattle Bike Supply has closed its Dallas, Texas, facility as it restructures its warehouse network. It also will close warehouses in Rancho Dominguez, California, and Reynoldsburg, Ohio, within the month.
SBS will merge its Rancho Dominguez and Reynoldsburg warehouses with existing Raleigh facilities in Ontario, California, and Pataskala, Ohio. (Pataskala is near Columbus.) The Reynoldsburg warehouse is 15 miles from Pataskala and the Rancho Dominguez facility is 45 miles from Ontario. SBS will maintain its current distribution center in Kent, Washington.
Greg Blackwell, president of SBS, said the consolidation should be completed in January as Accell North America seeks to boost efficiency, fill rates and deliver “world class” service to its dealers.
“It’s definitely going to improve our distribution,” Blackwell said, “and we’re excited about that.” From a dealer perspective, the changeover should be seamless, he added. Dealers currently place all orders through Kent, Washington; products are then shipped from the appropriate warehouse.
SBS, Raleigh and its proprietary brands—Lapierre, Diamondback, Redline, Torker, Pryme, XLC and several others—make up Accell North America, part of Accell Group Ltd., a Dutch holding company. SBS and Raleigh also have corporate offices in Kent.
Accell bought SBS in 2006 along with its four warehouses. The Dutch company then purchased Raleigh USA in May 2012, including its parts and distribution network, served by warehouses in Ontario and Pataskala.
As of January, the SBS warehouse in Kent will handle only parts and accessories, while the warehouses in California and Ohio will distribute all of Accell’s bicycle brands as well as P&A, Blackwell added.
Five employees were laid off with the Dallas closure. Blackwell said he’s uncertain at this point what will happen to employees in Reynoldsburg and Rancho Dominguez. “We are currently working with Menlo Worldwide Logistics to get as many employees placed either at our current facilities or with other Menlo distribution centers and that would include Dallas,” he said.
Menlo, a third-party supply chain management company, has been shipping Raleigh bicycles and its P&A line since 2008 from its Ontario and Pataskala warehouses. Menlo Worldwide is owned by Con-way Inc., a $5.6 billion freight and logistics service company with headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Con-way is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CNW.
