Birmingham cemented itself as an epicenter for logistics and distribution hubs in 2020.
Companies like Amazon, Lowe’s Home Improvement, FedEx and Home Depot all expanded their distribution networks in the region last year, many citing Birmingham’s central location in the Southeastern U.S. These expansions helped buoy Birmingham out of a tough 2020 and accounted for much of the region’s jobs and capital investment announced last year.
In April, Home Depot announced it would hire 200 for its distribution center in McCalla.
FedEx Ground announced in August it would build a $40.6 million, 300,000-square-foot facility on Lakeshore Parkway, creating 285 full- and part-time jobs.
Motion Industries, Inc., a leading global distributor of maintenance, repair and operation replacement parts and a premier provider of industrial technology solutions, announced in October plans to consolidate two of its facilities into a new, state-of-the-art 104,000-square-foot facility in Irondale. The project will create 15 new jobs, retain 13 jobs and represents a capital investment of $11.2 million. By December, the company broke ground on the facility.
In the same week in November, Lowe’s Home Improvement announced plans to construct a 1.2 million-square-foot facility in Bessemer, adding 150 jobs and investing over $61 million, and Amazon Logistics announced it will open two new Birmingham delivery stations expected to open in 2021. The stations will power Amazon’s last-mile delivery capabilities to speed up deliveries for customers in the Birmingham metro area, the company said.
That same month, Buffalo Rock Co. announced it would add 50 jobs and invest $75 million in a new distribution hub and headquarter relocation, also off Lakeshore Parkway.
Other new and expanding industry highlights across the Birmingham region in 2020 included:
Back Forty Birmingham
U.S. Steel
Microbrewery Back Forty Birmingham announced in May it will invest $350,000 into an expansion that will add an additional 5,000 square feet to its facility, creating 10 new jobs.
Unipres, a global leader in stamping technology, announced in August it will undergo a $6.3 million expansion at its production facility in Steele. The expansion – which will include major equipment purchases to meet new and increased demand from major original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) for upcoming models – will also bring 10 new jobs to the facility.
U.S. Steel announced in October a successful startup of its newly completed advanced electric arc furnace in Fairfield, a $412 million investment in the plant. Construction began in March 2019, and when fully operational, the furnace will be able to produce 1.6 million tons of steel annually.
In November, auto supplier Mobis US Alabama LLC announced plans to open a new facility at the Jefferson County Metropolitan Industrial Park in McCalla, adding 120 jobs within three years of the project’s completion and $15.8 million in capital investment as part of the project.
Digital health company Acclinate announced it had relocated its corporate headquarters from Huntsville to Birmingham in December, citing Birmingham’s focus on health care, technology and the success of minority-owned businesses.
Also in December, Walker County had two announcements: Heiche US Surface Technologies announced it is creating 73 jobs in Walker County for an automotive industry coatings plant and Jasper Lumber Co. announced a partnership with Canada’s Tolko Industries Ltd., which will create at least 60 jobs in a $45 million expansion of the company’s lumber production capabilities at its Walker County facility.