ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE: ABD), a world leader in branded office products, celebrated the expansion of the company’s Booneville, Mississippi distribution and manufacturing facility today with a grand opening ceremony that included dignitaries from across the state and beyond. The $55 million project has created an additional 330 jobs and will enable the company to more efficiently distribute and manufacture its broad range of office products, as well as better serve its customers.
The facility will be the company’s key distribution center in the southeast and its principal manufacturing site in North America for presentation boards sold under the Quartet® brand. The company will also manufacture binders at the site.
Speakers at the event included:
- Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour
- Mississippi Representative and Speaker William McCoy
- ACCO Brands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer David D. Campbell
- ACCO Brands President and Chief Operating Officer, Office Products Group, Dennis Chandler
- Booneville Mayor Roger Smith
- Prentiss County Board of Supervisors President Mike Huddleston
“The expansion of the Booneville facility is a strategically significant investment in our operating platform to better serve our customers throughout the southeast and across the United States,” said David D. Campbell, chairman and chief executive officer of ACCO Brands Corporation. “We’ve created a modern, paperless distribution center that is in greater proximity to our customers, which will help reduce operating and shipping costs.”
“This is another solid investment in Mississippi by one of our state's most outstanding corporate citizens, and I am very pleased this latest ACCO Brands expansion is taking place at the company’s Booneville manufacturing and distribution facility,” said Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour. “The expansion is the result of good partnerships that are helping put many Mississippians to work at very good jobs, making our economy stronger."
A variety of dignitaries were in attendance for the ceremony, including state and local elected officials; state and local officials from organizations such as the Tennessee Valley Authority, the Mississippi Development Authority and others; ACCO Brands senior executives; and nearly 500 Booneville facility employees. The company also announced a $14,000 contribution of playground equipment for parks in the Booneville area to further celebrate the occasion with the surrounding community. The event closed with a symbolic launch of 800 ACCO Brands balloons representing the employee base at the facility.
“This grand opening marks the culmination of a two-year private and public partnership that has helped create 330 new jobs and will cultivate significant economic growth within Booneville and the surrounding area for years to come,” said Dennis Chandler, ACCO Brands president and chief operating officer, Office Products Group. “We’re proud to make Booneville our home for what has now become ACCO Brands’ key distribution center in the southeast.”
A $2.4 million grant was provided by the federal Economic Development Administration for the expansion, in addition to grants from the Mississippi Development Authority. The new facility has more than one million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space after major renovations to existing buildings and the construction of three new structures. Approximately 800 employees at the site are working in distribution, manufacturing and customer service functions.
Booneville Mayor Roger Smith said, “We, the City of Booneville, wish to thank ACCO Brands for selecting Booneville as the city in which this major investment has been made. ACCO Brands is giving to our community an opportunity that will provide economic growth for years to come. In addition to manufacturing, Booneville and Prentiss County are now the location of ACCO Brands’ very successful Customer Service Center. This speaks well for the available workforce not only in Booneville and Prentiss County but also for Northeast Mississippi.”
About ACCO Brands Corporation
ACCO Brands Corporation (NYSE: ABD) is a world leader in select categories of branded office products, with annual revenues of nearly $2 billion. Its industry-leading brands include Day-Timer®, Swingline®, Kensington®, Quartet®, GBC®, Rexel, NOBO, and Wilson Jones®, among others. Under the GBC brand, the company is also a leader in the professional print finishing market.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains statements which may constitute "forward-looking" statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, are made as of the date hereof and the company assumes no obligation to update them. ACCO Brands' ability to predict results or the actual effect of future plans or strategies is inherently uncertain and actual results may differ from those predicted depending on a variety of factors, including but not limited to fluctuations in cost and availability of raw materials; competition within the markets in which the company operates; the effects of both general and extraordinary economic, political and social conditions; the dependence of the company on certain suppliers of manufactured products; the effect of consolidation in the office products industry; the risk that businesses that have been combined into the company as a result of the merger with General Binding Corporation will not be integrated successfully; the risk that targeted cost savings and synergies from the aforesaid merger and other previous business combinations may not be fully realized or take longer to realize than expected; disruption from business combinations making it more difficult to maintain relationships with the company's customers, employees or suppliers; foreign exchange rate fluctuations; the development, introduction and acceptance of new products; the degree to which higher raw material costs, and freight and distribution costs, can be passed on to customers through selling price increases and the effect on sales volumes as a result thereof; increases in health care, pension and other employee welfare costs; as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the company's SEC filings.
ACCO BRANDS BOONEVILLE, MISSISSIPPI FACILITY BACKGROUNDER
ACCO Brands in Booneville, Mississippi
The ACCO Brands Booneville, Mississippi facility is the company’s key distribution center in the southeast. It’s also the primary North American manufacturing site for the company’s visual communication business unit (primarily Quartet® brand presentation boards), and a distribution center for the portfolio of products made and marketed by the ACCO Brands Office Products Group, Document Finishing Group, and Computer Products Group throughout the southeast and across the U.S. In April 2008, as a result of a two-year public and private partnership, ACCO Brands completed a $55 million expansion of the facility, where it also manufactures binders.
The ACCO Brands Booneville site has more inventory capacity than the company’s additional two distribution sites combined. The facility manages the most comprehensive product offering of any ACCO Brands distribution center, including company brands such as Swingline®, Kensington®, Quartet®, GBC®, and Wilson Jones®.
Approximately 800 people are employed at the Booneville facility (an increase of 330 positions), which occupies more than one million square feet. Some older structures on the site were demolished to accommodate efficient, world-class distribution and manufacturing systems and the construction of new structures. The company also invested in racking and distribution equipment, information technology systems, and related items as part of the new Booneville facility.
The expansion included the relocation of manufacturing operations previously based in Lincolnshire, Illinois and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and distribution operations located in Hanover Park, Illinois, to the Booneville site. ACCO Brands customer service operations were also relocated from Lincolnshire, Illinois to Booneville during the expansion.
Site Features
- Total expansion investment: more than $55 million
- Over one million square feet of manufacturing and warehouse space – the largest ACCO Brands distribution center in North America
- Total employees: approximately 800
- Technological features: RF-equipped pallets, bar codes for electronic sorting and tracking, logic codes, motion-detecting lights that help conserve electricity
- Full capacity pallet footprint: 62,000 pallets
- Approximately 8,000 unique stock-keeping-units (SKUs) under management
- The facility ships approximately $12 – $14 million in ACCO Brands products each week throughout the eastern, southern and southwestern U.S. More than $596 million in products are expected to pass through the Booneville site during 2008.
- The facility manages the most comprehensive product offering of any ACCO Brands distribution center, including company brands such as Swingline®, Kensington®, Quartet®, GBC®, and Wilson Jones®.
- The Booneville site is the largest employer in Prentiss County.
Local Investment in Booneville, Mississippi
- ACCO Brands is contributing to the community more than $18 million in salary and benefits to full-time, part-time and seasonal employees, in addition to payment of local taxes and working with area businesses for needs such as construction, electrical work, landscaping, etc.
Contacts:
Julie Pottebaum
312-643-8668
