Workers will start moving equipment into the $100 million FedEx Ground sorting hub in Kernersville in June, a company official said this week.
Construction is on budget and on schedule, said John Payne, the senior vice president of line haul, safety and maintenance for FedEx Ground.
"We're very happy with the construction, and our plan to open is on schedule for September 2011," Payne said Wednesday.
FedEx Ground is a small-package ground carrier and an operating company of FedEx Corp. The hub is being built in Triad Business Park at Old Greensboro Road and West Market Street in Guilford County, within the Kernersville town limits. Kernersville annexed the park in 2008.
When it opens next year, the hub will have 500 full- and part-time employees, of which about 150 will be new. Positions will include package handlers, maintenance technicians, and administration and management staff members.
There will be an additional 270 independent contractors, with 120 of the positions newly created.
Hiring is expected to begin in June 2011.
The company will move the operations of two of its Winston-Salem locations into the new hub, including its terminal in Union Cross Business Park.
"When the hub opens in September (2011) it will be able to sort 15,000 packages per hour," Payne said.
When the expansion is completed over the next three to five years, depending on the economy, the hub will sort 45,000 packages an hour and is expected to have up to 750 employees, he said.
Despite the current weakness in the U.S. economy, FedEx Ground has faired well. It reported revenue of $1.9 billion for its third quarter, up 7 percent from $1.8 billion for the same quarter a year ago.
Payne said that the new hub is needed to support the company's continued growth.
"We have a very large hub in Charlotte," he said. "That hub has been through a recent expansion and it is at capacity."
The City-County Utility Commission will provide water service to the park, and High Point will provide sanitary-sewer service through a deal with Kernersville.
Jeff Hatling, Kernersville's director of community development, said that the hub will provide job opportunities for residents and greatly enhance the town's tax base.
"It will also act as an anchor of the Triad Business Park, which will attract additional development," Hatling said.
Guilford County commissioners voted in July 2008 to give nearly $1 million to FedEx Ground if it brought up to 470 jobs to the area within six years.
fdaniel@wsjournal.com
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