MSC Industrial Direct, one of the largest industrial distributors in the country, says it will close the corporate headquarters of its newly-acquired Barnes Distribution North America operations in Cleveland, Ohio. MSC says it will merge the Cleveland facility into MSC’s new corporate headquarters in Davidson, N.C., which is slated to open next month.
“There are many in the Cleveland building who'll make the move to Davidson, with a small number of associates remaining in a satellite Cleveland presence,” Erik Gershwind, president and CEO of MSC told analysts in a recent conference call. A transcript of the call was provided by www.seekingalpha.com.
He made the comments after the company released its quarterly earnings two weeks ago.
About 120 employees of MSC’s former headquarters in Melville, N.Y. will also be making the move to Davidson, Gershwind said.
He said that MSC was moving through the integration process and the company has decided to fold 5 of the 9 BDNA locations into MSC’s over the next 18 months.
“Customers will receive even better levels of service from our combined teams,” he said. “Three of the locations will consolidate sooner, while two will wait for our Columbus Fulfillment Center until it's up and running to absorb the incremental volume. The four buildings that will remain include our three Canadian locations and the repackaging center, which brings added capabilities to our network and which we plan to leverage for improved purchasing,” Gershwind added..
He was referring to MSC’s Columbus, Ohio facility that is expected to be completed in 2014.
MSC announced in February that it was purchasing Barnes Distribution North America from the Barnes Group for $550 million. The deal was completed in April.
