Ohio-Based Medical Supply Firm to Close Waco, Texas, Distribution Center. - Waco Tribune-Herald (Waco, TX)

Byline: Mike Copeland

Jan. 25--Cardinal Health will close its Waco distribution center and move the operation to Roanoke, Texas, eliminating about 90 local jobs.

The Tribune-Herald reported that move in April of last year, but Cardinal Health officials refused to comment. On Thursday, company spokeswoman Lisa Kim confirmed that Cardinal Health will move in May to Roanoke, near Fort Worth, where it is erecting a facility.

'Conducting business in Waco has been good, but we're constantly evaluating and improving our processes, our automation, our technology and our distribution network,' said Kim, speaking by phone from corporate headquarters in Ohio. 'It made sense to move into a more efficient, state-of-the-art distribution center closer to our customer base.'

Cardinal Health distributes pharmaceuticals, most of them being prescription medicines, to retail pharmacies such as Walgreen's and to hospitals and grocery stores.

'We have offered jobs (in Roanoke) to all of our Waco-based employees in good standing,' said Kim, 'and about half of our employees have accepted our offer.'

She said the company has hired an outplacement firm to help other employees find jobs.

Jack Stewart, president of the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce, said he hates to see Waco lose the jobs. He said the chamber has turned its attention to marketing the Cardinal Health complex at 7500 Mars Drive.

'The facility is excellent, well built, and there should be no problem at all in finding a user,' said Stewart. 'We have been aware of the potential of this move for several months, and we've already been making people aware of (the building's) availability.'

The relocation, said Stewart, 'is a strategic move for the business that is not related at all to Waco. They wanted to be where the markets are.'

Sources say Cardinal Health is building a new distribution center in the middle of AllianceTexas, a development on 15,000 acres next to Alliance Airport in Fort Worth.

One source said AllianceTexas involves 110 companies and 20 million square feet of space. Zenith, Nokia, Nestle's, John Deere, General Motors, Tom Thumb, Volkswagen, J.C. Penney, General Mills, AT&T Wireless and Maytag are a few of the companies with distribution centers or campuses within AllianceTexas.

The Cardinal Health facility in Waco was built in 1987 and has an appraised value of about $3 million.

Bland Cromwell, an industrial sales specialist with Coldwell Banker Jim Stewart Realtors, said he hopes to help market the property.

Cardinal Health can trace its ancestry to Behrens Drug, a Waco-based company that was 116 years old when the Clifton family sold it in 1994.

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(c) 2002, Waco Tribune-Herald, Texas. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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