UPS wants to be recruiting tool for region

By Thomas V. Bona

BusinessRockford.com

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ROCKFORD —  UPS wants area businesses to know what brown can do for them.

The company is pushing its Rockford air hub — long a benefit to UPS’ national network — as a benefit for companies in or considering locating in the Rock River Valley.

That includes the opportunity to ship packages late at night or get them early in the morning, and a way to avoid the congested Chicago O’Hare International Airport.

“There are a lot of opportunities for businesses to take advantage of the infrastructure to provide strategic competitive advantages ... that aren’t easily duplicated,” said UPS marketing manager Joe Olejniczak. “Quite frankly, people don’t know about it. ... We haven’t necessarily done a great job of communicating how this infrastructure can help people.”

More than a billion pounds of cargo land a year at UPS’s hub at Chicago Rockford International Airport, making it the company’s second-largest domestic hub. But most of those items are coming and going from other parts of the country.

UPS doesn’t see local traffic becoming a big focus of the hub, but it could be a boost at a time when global shipping levels are down.

Moreover, the UPS hub could become a bigger draw to companies looking at the Rockford region, said Eric Voyles, vice president of national business development for the Rockford Area Economic Development Council.

Medical companies that do diagnostic services or make high-priority shipments, electronics makers, order fulfillment centers and other industries particularly could benefit, he said.

There are some local companies that make use of the hub, but not nearly as many as around other major cargo airports like O’Hare, Louisville International Airport and Memphis International Airport, Voyles said.

Contact staff writer Thomas V. Bona at 815-987-1343 or tbona@rrstar.com.

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