The Board of Directors of CLARCOR Inc. has approved an approximately $40 million investment by its subsidiary Baldwin Filters, Inc. to build a new 400,000 square foot warehouse and distribution center adjacent to Baldwin's current manufacturing facility in Kearney, Nebraska. The project is anticipated to take approximately two years to complete.
Chris Conway, CLARCOR's chairman and chief executive officer, stated, “Our Baldwin business is a principal driver of CLARCOR's success, and we are excited to expand Baldwin's capacity to handle anticipated growth over the next decade. Baldwin has become the leading North American supplier of heavy duty aftermarket engine filters precisely because of its product breadth and its demonstrated ability to meet its customers' expectations for product quality, performance, and on time delivery. Efficient distribution capabilities and excellent customer service are the lifeblood of Baldwin, and our new facility should ensure that Baldwin retains these competitive advantages for years to come.
“Not only will we improve our warehousing and distribution capabilities, but the new facility should allow us to address inefficiencies with off-site storage and free up additional manufacturing space so that Baldwin can make an even broader array of products, achieve greater production efficiencies and advance its efforts to develop new and exciting engine filtration technologies. We expect to see capacity and efficiency gains as a result of this project.”
Groundbreaking for the new facility is expected to take place in the spring of 2013 with the anticipated opening of the facility in the spring of 2015. Approximately $20 million of the total investment is anticipated to be made in fiscal year 2013 and has been included in CLARCOR's 2013 capital expenditure budget. The remainder of the approximately $40 million total investment is expected to be made in fiscal years 2014 and 2015.
CLARCOR is based in Franklin, Tennessee and is a diversified marketer and manufacturer of mobile, industrial and environmental filtration products and consumer and industrial packaging products sold in domestic and international markets. Common shares of the Company are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol CLC.