From the Business Courier:

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/print-edition/2011/06/10/verst-group-logistics-to-expand-in.html

Verst Group Logistics Inc. will double the size of its 200,000-square-foot Hebron facilityto handle increased business in its packaging division.

A $5 million expansion is scheduled to start July 1 and be completed by October, adding 20 docks and 5,000 square feet of office space. When the expansion is finished, the company will add 25 employees to the 35 full-time and 100 temporary workers at the facility.

"We're bulging out the doors," said CEO Paul Verst.Revenue for the logistics company rose to $135 million last year, an 8 percent increase from $125 million in 2009. The company is projecting a 13 percent increase in revenue this year, Verst said.

Walton-based Verst Group Logistics has three business units: contract packaging, warehousing and transportation. It employs more than 1,200 people and operates 14 locations with more than 3.5 million square feet of space. It also has more than 125 trucks and 250 trailers moving products around the Midwest.

Client growth pushes Verst

Verst has added space a few blocks away in Hebron with a short-term lease to handle the overflow until the expansion is complete. When Verst acquired the 20 acres for the Hebron facility in 1998, it was planned as a twophase facility. To make room for the addition, Verst Group is in the process of acquiring six acres of land from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. The acquisition is expected to close soon.

Verst said the company will likely buy material handling equipment and packaging lines for the expanded building.

The Hebron facility, located on Gateway Boulevard, provides contract packaging services such as shrink labeling, multi-packing and point-of-purchase display assembly and fulfillment. Customers include Procter & Gamble Co., Dial Corp. and Kraft Foods Co.Expanding need from existing and new customers was the driving force behind finally deciding to expand, Verst said.

The company doesn't publicize sales by segment, but Verst said the expansion will allow it to more than double its production at the site. David Closs, chairman of supply chain management for the Board College of Business atMichigan State University, said the logistics industry as a whole declined last year, due to the lingering effects of the recession. A total of $1.1 trillion was spent on logistics in 2010, down $244 billion from 2009. But Closs said logistics spending will pick up this year, as a result of more demand to move products and increased fuel costs.

And companies such as Verst Group that provide additional services are seeing more business, as companies move to integrate those services with other suppliers or move them out of their own factories, Closs said. "Companies want to outsource more logistics activities and smaller companies are more interested in it now, too," he said.

Verst hired Dayton-based Miller-Valentine Group as general contractor for the project.Miller-Valentine has built five other buildings for the company, totaling more than 1 million square feet, since 1987.

Goal: LEED certification

The company wants the expansion to be certified LEED Silver. LEED stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and was developed by the U.S. Green BuildingCouncil as a green building certification system.The expansion will use geothermal heating and cooling, recycled materials, high-efficiency lighting, daylighting with windows, and storm water retention to garner the certification.

A number of other clients are in a similar position as Verst; they've been looking at projects for years and are finally pulling the trigger, said Chris Knueven, president of Miller-Valentine's commercial construction.

Knueven anticipates Miller-Valentine will meet its 2011 goals. The real estate company is working on expansion projects for L'Oreal, P&G, Links Unlimited, L3 Communicationsand Burlington Baptist Church.