A leading national corporate site selection company has recognized Rocky Mount as a top location on the East Coast for the distribution and warehousing industry.
Founded in 1975, New Jersey-based The Boyd Company Inc. provides independent site selection counsel to leading United States and overseas corporations.
John Boyd, principal of The Boyd Company, said it works very closely with the North Carolina Governor’s Office in the field of economic development.
A recent corporate site selection study conducted by The Boyd Company focused heavily on the comparative cost of doing business for a typical distribution center, and Rocky Mount ranked as one of the country’s top 11 sites for warehousing centers. Boyd said Rocky Mount’s $11.2 million per year total annual geographically-variable operating cost is the third lowest among the top 11 warehousing centers.
Major distribution centers in the Twin Counties include QVC, McLane Foodservice and Meadowbrook Meat Co., Boyd added. The corporate site selection study included labor, real estate, power, taxes, shipping and other factors, Boyd said.
Operating cost has become a white-hot issue in corporate boardrooms and has really influenced where a lot of distribution centers will be studied over the next 18 months, Boyd explained.
“This study is terrific news for the Rocky Mount area because companies want to be in a cost-effective market because it’s very difficult to control what happens on the revenue side of the ledger,” Boyd said. “One thing companies can control is what happens on the cost side of the ledger. Being in a right-to-work state like North Carolina is something companies like to be in because it keeps labor costs competitive and low, so by the numbers a strong case can be made for Rocky Mount.”
Boyd said many communities used to be resistant to new warehousing projects — however, cities are actively courting these same projects because the economic benefits have become understood. Large warehouses can translate into huge property, sales, utilities and income tax windfalls for cities.
In The Boyd Company’s annual operating costs study, it ranged from a high of $14.6 million per year in the Meadowlands/Northern New Jersey area to a low of $11 million per year in Savannah, Ga. The second-lowest operating cost was in the Florence/Myrtle Beach and Cheraw area in South Carolina at just over $11 million per year.
“People ask me when I’m in a particular city, what can we do to attract these projects? And the first thing to do is recognizing who you are competing against,” Boyd said. “South Carolina is the major competition for the Rocky Mount area and North Carolina. In this case, northeastern South Carolina within the Myrtle Beach region, which is on the radar like never before because of its proximity to the port in Charleston, S.C.”
While the loss of American manufacturing jobs to foreign labor has been a central theme over the years, the trend of offshoring may be slowing, Boyd said.
“A big plus for Rocky Mount area is transportation infrastructure, which is very important because it ties into reshoring because manufacturing jobs are coming back to the states, he said. “Manufacturers are reluctant to deal with potential tariffs President Donald Trump is looking to impose and he also wants to cut taxes and reduce regulations. That means manufacturing activity will happen in right-to-work markets in proximity to ports like the port of Charleston, S.C. That means jobs for advanced manufacturing and distribution, and that is good news for a right-to-work, low-cost market like Rocky Mount.”
