ALLEN-BRADLEY

The Journal Sentinel staff

Allen-Bradley Co. plans to build a distribution facility near Champaign, Ill., that would take over much of the shipping duties currently handled in Milwaukee and two other locations, a company spokeswoman said Friday.

Construction of the 180,000- to 190,000-square-foot facility is to begin this summer, and the center should open in mid-1996. The center will serve both the company's domestic and international customers.

The company's large control systems will still be shipped directly from the plants where they are built, said Shawna Todd, a company spokeswoman.

Allen-Bradley gave no cost estimate for the new center, which is expected to employ about 100 workers.

Apparently the move to a single centralized shipping facility will not cost any of the 130 local Allen-Bradley shipping workers their jobs.

Todd said some shipping still must be handled locally as prod Leg 1 ends here ucts made here are transported to the new distribution center. The company also will try to find other positions within the company for any workers displaced by the change.

Shipping facilities in Manchester, N.H., and Twinsburg, Ohio, which employ a total of about 20 people, also will be affected by the company's new Illinois shipping center. Those departments will be scaled back, but not closed, Todd said.

Allen-Bradley is making the move to better satisfy customer needs, she said. The company conducted a study that showed a single distribution site would be less confusing for customers and simplify distribution.

The exact site of the center is still up in the air, but several locations near Champaign are being considered.

Allen-Bradley is a division of Rockwell International Corp. and makes programmable controllers and an array of industrial automation and control products.

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