Location, People

Demographics Play a Role

Leadership

Location, people, leadership contribute to emerging transportation and supply-chain hub

The Greensboro-High Point area of North Carolina has long been a manufacturing powerhouse. Guilford County is first among its peers in the state and is high up on the list of manufacturing centers in the Southeast. North Carolina’s furniture industry has seen better days—although an uptick was recently reported—but it has been joined by other key industries such as aerospace and automotive. The labor market in the region is tight, indicating a prosperous economy.

Since manufacturing always interfaces with logistics, it’s not surprising that the region should have developed a robust logistics infrastructure. But that doesn’t provide a complete explanation as to why Greensboro-High Point has developed an excess of modern transportation and logistics capacity, especially considering the decrepitude of much of the infrastructure in the United States.

From an over-abundance of interstate highways to the proactive improvement of one-thousand acres at Piedmont Triad International Airport, the region is in the same class as logistics hubs like Indianapolis, Columbus, and Louisville. The question for the future is whether it can push into the same league.

Old Dominion Freight Lines, with 235 service centers across all 48 continental states, is headquartered in nearby Thomasville, N.C.
Old Dominion Freight Lines, with 235 service centers across all 48 continental states, is headquartered in nearby Thomasville, N.C.

Old Dominion Freight Lines, one of the nation’s largest less-than-truckload carriers, with 235 service centers across all 48 continental states, is headquartered in nearby Thomasville, NC. XPO Logistics, the largest third-party provider in the country and second-largest globally, headquarters its supply-chain management business and operates one of its three data centers in the region. Transplace, a transportation management company with $9 billion of freight under management and 20 million shipments a year, focuses its support for medium and smaller customers out of an office building in downtown Greensboro. Fedex and UPS have hubs in the area and Fastenal is opening its master East Coast distribution hub in the region.

“With the presence of manufacturing and other industries, and our terrific location, it makes sense that we are well-covered with infrastructure,” said Meredith Berger, director for existing industry services at the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. “We have also had important state support to attract additional assets to our area.”