In The News

SwimOutlet.com grows distribution center in first year

October 1, 2012  |  Inc., Swimoutlet.com Spiraledge

By Chelsey Levingston

SwimOutlet.com opened its distribution center here on Port Union Road close to the border with Fairfield about this time last year. The online order fulfillment center was welcomed for its plans to create 75 jobs and fill vacant building space.

Since its first order was shipped in September 2011, the company has hired close to 120 employees, said Sean Ryder, vice president of fulfillment.

Spiraledge Inc. of California, the website’s owner, also launched in the past year three other new websites — RunOutlet.com, SurfOutlet.com and YogaOutlet.com, all of which ship products direct to customers from West Chester Twp.

The Ohio warehouse is Spiraledge’s only location outside of California, picked for its key geographic location that makes it ideal for getting packages to customers fast.

“This part of the United States, the carriers can get to a lot of the country with their ground service within two days,” Ryder said. “The space was the right size, the building was unused, so we didn’t have to undo anything.”

Other distribution and fulfillment centers located in the area include Cornerstone Brands in West Chester Twp., Kohl’s fulfillment and Home Depot’s rapid deployment centers in Monroe, and Amazon.com’s warehouse in Hebron, Ky.

Transportation and material handling jobs are expected to be one of the nation’s and region’s fastest growing industries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. They project 1.3 million jobs will be added in this field from 2010 to 2010 throughout the U.S for more than 10,300,000 jobs at the end of this decade. On the local level in the Cincinnati-Middletown region, the annual median wage for transportation related jobs in 2011 was $32,470.

SwimOutlet.com was founded more than 10 years ago, and says it’s the largest online specialty shop for swimming, water polo, fashion, beach, and surf products in the U.S. It sells swim gear, clothing and accessories.

The company is well known by competitive swimmers, Ryder said.

The company signed in 2011 lease for approximately 200,000-square-feet at 4300 Port Union Road in the Port Union Commerce Park.

Employees receive products from vendors, put items away to the appropriate shelf, resolve returns and problem packages, pick orders to be shipped to customers and load trucks with items. On a given Friday, 2,800 products can be shipped from the distribution center, with as many as 4,000 products on a given Monday after weekend orders come in.

Also on site locally, photos and videos are taken of each of the 65,000 different types of products the company sells to post to its website.

“While it may sound as easy as boxes in one side and boxes out on the other, there’s a million things between,” Ryder said.

SwimOutlet.com

What: Retail website for swim gear, clothing and accessories

Where: West Chester Twp. fulfillment center at 4300 Port Union Road

Owner: Spiraledge Inc. of California

Vice president of fulfillment: Sean Ryder

Website: www.swimoutlet.com