New millwork DC designed for service

lar LEN Oak Lumber & Milling has \fdesiened everv facet of its new distributiin center'near Atlanta. Ga.. to serve customers' needs.

The Wisconsin-based national manufacturer of lumber and millwork products added the 22,000-sq. ft. DC to facilitate distribution of interior trim products in the Southeastern United States. The clear span facility with over 22' clear-height was designed to house loads of Glen retailers in a 250-mile radius of Atlanta with greater access to the volume of raw and paint-primed Prime Poplar products manufactured in Glen Oak's Somerset, Ky., facilities. The recently expanded Somerset mills feature raised deck production and an eight-head moulder capable of producing S4S boards with a very fine finish, at a rate of up to 500 ft. per minute.

The Atlanta DC's inside and outside sales personnel and office staff traffic product inventory and orders during standard business hours, while truck drivers make deliveries around the clock-to independent dealers by day, and to Home Depot stores at night. According to Warford, such service is possible because of careful attention to detail, on all fronts.

Oak's Prime Poplar boards and mouldings, solid oak, maple, aspen and pine S4S boards, and engineered veneer board products. The Glen Oak DC also cross-docks products for other select manufacturers lacking their own localized distribution centers.

Developed by distribution manager David Warford, Glen Oak's newest facility was initially conceived to support deliveries to Home Depot stores and warehouses in the retailer's MidSouth Region. Glen Oak supplies Home Depot with a full range of board programs and hardwood flooring in this and other markets. Additionally, the Glen Oak DC supplies independent dealers and architectural millwork houses with board and moulding products.

"Dealers receiving product from Glen Oak's Atlanta DC get just-intime delivery of elite product, milldirect," David Warford explains. "We eliminate middlemen, help keep costs down, and the product remains nice and neat from mill to store shelf."

The DC provides area dealers and

"It's always an advantage when you can design and build a facility from the ground up for a specific purpose," says Warford, who designed the DC facility himself. "With our unloading dock and bay docks, we are able to receive containers straight from the port and eliminate unload/reload functions typically necessary with flatbeds. This keeps product and package handling to a minimum."

He says his competitors in the distribution business typically try to sell many different products, all bought from outside sources. "One of the differences between us and them," Warford says, "is that we manufacture the majority of the products we distribute and we focus on fewer items, handling them extremely well. This results in better quality controls and pricing."

The DC's carefully selected location is another distinct advantage. Strategically situated 40 miles north of Atlanta in Ball Ground. Ga.. the facility is within 200 yards of Atlanta artery U.S. 575, and just north of the proposed Atlanta beltline highway. The DC is also within minutes of a private airport, making customer tours of Glen Oak's Southeastern manufacturing and distribution facilities, via its corporate aircraft, expeditious and hassle-free.

As is common with Glen Oak's other facilities, visitors to the new Southeast distribution center are clearly impressed. Clean, bright, spacious and well organized, the facility is more than just a warehouse. Its lobby and offices are showrooms of Glen Oak product installations. High ceilings, large stacked mouldings and 6-panel doors belie the building's hard working industrial nature.

Warford trusts that his Atlanta team's hard work and attention to detail will pay off. And, as Glen Oak's southeast distribution business grows, so, too, can the facility. There is already room planned for an adjacent 12,000-sq. ft. expansion to house more inventory, when the need arises.