The entrepreneurial spirit of two international shipping partners -- DHL Express and Southern Air -- is creating new jobs in Northern Kentucky while pumping up both carrier's international cachet.
DHL Express, a division of leading global logistics company DHL, just celebrated the completion of a major four-year, $105M infrastructure investment at its CVG hub in Boone County. Meanwhile, a DHL shipping partner, Southern Air, moved from Connecticut to Northern Kentucky bringing more jobs and logistics innovation to the region.
"DHL's continued expansion sets the tone for a vibrant business environment in Northern Kentucky. We take great pride as a community in the achievements of this dynamic company and the global reach it provides for our region," said Boone County judge-executive and Northern Kentucky Tri-County Economic Development Corporation chairman Gary Moore in an announcement marking the DHL investment milestone.
A global leader creates local impact
Since relocating to Northern Kentucky from Wilmington, Ohio in 2009, DHL has become a major economic force in the region, creating jobs and evolving into an international leader in shipping and logistics.
Travis Cobb, Director of Operations at DHL Express, says support from the local workforce, community and state have contributed to the hub's success.
"Northern Kentucky has been a huge supporter of ours. The community itself is great from an employee perspective, and incentives from the state have shown continued support in our long-term success," Cobb says.
The CVG facility is one of three DHL super hubs across the globe: the others are in Hong Kong and Leipzig, Germany. The expanded global hub in Northern Kentucky is the heart of the DHL U.S. network.
The DHL expansion includes a new 180,000-square-foot sorting facility specifically designed to accommodate larger express shipments, an expanded south ramp for additional wide-body aircraft, an employee and pilot building, as well as a facility-wide information technology upgrade.
DHL is headquartered in Bonn, Germany, and encompasses three divisions: DHL Express, DHL Global Forwarding, Freight and DHL Supply Chain. The company has a presence in more than 220 countries and territories across the world. It's one of nearly 180 European companies that have a presence in the Kentucky; together those companies employ more than 26,000 people.
Contributing factors that led to Computerworld recognizing DHL Express include "benefits and compensation packages for its IT employees such as college tuition and higher education reimbursement, retention, professional development programs and specialized training," the company said.
Expansion brings new partners to CVG
DHL's growth in Northern Kentucky attracted one of its shipping partners, Southern Air. The company, which carries freight for DHL, moved to the region this spring from Norwalk, Conn. The international carrier provides long-term aircraft, maintenance, insurance cargo services and crew.
Southern Air's new HQ is in Florence, near DHL. The company brought about 20 people from Connecticut, and now employs about 90 people in Northern Kentucky. The carrier expects to have between 125 to 150 total employees within the next three years, says Southern Air CEO Dan McHugh.
Southern Air is the first ACMI (Aircraft, Crew, Maintenance and Insurance) operator in the world to operate the fuel efficient Boeing 777 Freighter and currently operates four such aircraft globally for DHL Express. The company took out a full-page color advertisement in The Cincinnati Enquirer congratulating DHL Express on the expansion.
The carrier invested $3.5M in the headquarters as part of the move, and received $2.7M in income tax credits and wage assessment incentives from the state. Besides the incentives, Southern Air says the access to industry talent has been a major boost for the company.
"We couldn't grow the business without access to professional aviation people. It was taking us six months to fill jobs in Connecticut. We were competing with the New York area," McHugh says.
Before making the move Southern air looked at several competitive locations including Florida, Texas and Nevada.
"We looked at several traditional lower cost areas, and their access to an airport for our people. We had also signed up DHL as one of our main customers here in the Cincinnati area. I used to work for DHL and they value partners who make investments on their behalf," McHugh said. "We have access to and they value partners who make investments on their behalf," McHugh said. "We have access to world class talent here. CVG is a fantastic airport. It became an absolute no brainer."