by Caroline Gabsewics
Staff Writer
One would think Coach handbags, sun glasses, footwear and other accessories come from high-fashion cities like New York City or Los Angeles.
How about Jacksonville?
Tucked away near Jacksonville International Airport is the single distribution center for Coach, Inc. in the U.S. Last week the company announced plans to add 285,000 square feet of storage and shipping space to its current facility at One Coach Way in the Tradeport business park.
According to Jim Young, vice president of Distribution and Transportation for Coach, there were two major reasons why Coach decided to expand its current facility rather than build a satellite facility somewhere else in the U.S.
“We were very excited about the Port’s (Jacksonville Port Authority’s) expansion,” said Young. “It was one of the significant reasons why we decided to expand here.”
Young said they wouldn’t have closed the distribution center in Jacksonville if the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. didn’t decide to operate out of one of the Port’s terminals.
“One of our options was to build (another center) somewhere else,” he said. “But we are excited we can keep everything here in one place.
“The Port was a big part of that decision.”
Another major reason why they saw the need to expand the distribution center was the rise in the company’s sales.
“We had $2.6 billion in sales last year, and we’ll be at $3 billion this year and up to $5 billion in sales in the next couple years,” he said.
Currently the company employs 400 people. The expansion will create about 20 new jobs per year through 2011.
“Northeast Florida has a good work force and labor pool here,” he said. “It is one of the foundations of our success. That also lends credibility to the product.”
Young added that logistically Jacksonville is a great area for the company with major highways going through it and accessibility to the Port.
The distribution center ships Coach products to its retail stores, wholesale stores and individual customers. About 90 percent of its total distribution is done out of Jacksonville, with the other 10 percent done out of Tokyo. The top three wholesale accounts Coach has are Dillards, Macy’s and Nordstroms. They also have international wholesale accounts as well.
As of right now, and until the Mitsui O.S.K. Lines Ltd. begins operation in Jacksonville, most of the products are shipped from China on boats and are brought into Savannah, where the good are loaded onto a truck bound for Jacksonville or California.
“With the new Port expansion, we will then have an all water-type of transportation from China to Jacksonville,” said Young.
Once the products get to Jacksonville, everything must be electronically labeled and scanned for inventory.
“An average of 5,000 to 10,000 cases a day come to the distribution center. This past October we averaged about 9,000 cases a day,” said Young. “Last October (2006) only 7,000 cases a day came in on three different days.
“There has been a lot of growth just in the past year.”
Young added that compared to last year when 23 million individual units where shipped, 26 million have been shipped this year.
Young said there isn’t much need for inspection of the product once it gets to Jacksonville because those inspections are primarily done in the factory.
“Quality is paramount,” he said. “We do a lot of inspections before it comes here to keep up with the high standards of the product.”
Young says Coach need the news 285,000 square feet that are being added.
“You can’t tell by looking at it, but it is very tight right now as far as getting the job done,” said Young. “That addition will increase the number of products we can ship. When the expansion is complete, we will see a 57 percent increase in processing and storage capacity.”
Besides the actual distribution center, the company also has a customer service center.
Deborah D’Agostino, divisional vice president of End User Consumer Service, said 93 percent of the company’s call volume goes through the Jacksonville center, with a third party covering the other 7 percent.
Employees take care of customer phone calls and e-mails. Last year, they had 830,000 total calls, and 68,000 e-mails. D’Agostino said they get about 3,000 phone calls per day and over 7,000 phone calls per day during the busy season.
“It is very steady business, but December is very busy,” she said.
The team consists of 45 employees and they bring in seasonal staff for the busy season.
“Our whole philosophy is that we don’t want our customers to wait (on the phone),” she said. “We staff enough people so there is not a long wait. Coach is known for its quality, and we want our customer service to be a part of that.”
Sabrina Federico, director of wholesale customer service, and her staff manage all of the wholesale accounts, including customer service for stores like Macy’s and Nordstroms.
“Once the order is in our system, we manage it until it is shipped,” she said.
Federico and her staff also work with all of the international accounts. There are about 20 employees in her department.
The new additions will be added onto the north end of the building where there is currently a parking lot. The new shipping building will be attached to the current building, but will be built on the southern end of the 47 acres.
The original Coach facility opened in Jacksonville in 1995. They expanded in 1999 and again in 2004. After this current expansion, the company will have used all 47 acres.
“An organization like Coach lends credibility to an area and people love brand recognition,” said Young. “When other companies see a company like Coach doing so well in a city like Jacksonville, they can see it is a good place for other companies, too.”