Famous Footwear opening represents hope for future logistics at Tejon
| Thursday, Jun 04 2009 05:41 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Jun 04 2009 08:00 PM
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Casey Christie / The Californian Manuel Bravo of Bakersfield works in the newly opened Famous Footwear distribution center in the Tejon Industrial Complex.
Casey Christie / The Californian Manuel Bravo of Bakersfield works in the newly opened Famous Footwear distribution center in the Tejon Industrial Complex.
Casey Christie / The Californian Famous Footwear's new large distribution center has officially opened at the Tejon Industrial complex, south of Bakersfield.
Casey Christie / The Californian Manuel Bravo of Bakersfield works in the newly opened Famous Footwear distribution center in the Tejon Industrial Complex.
Casey Christie / The Californian Tejon Ranch Company Vice President to Commercial and Industrial Development, Barry Hibbard, left, and Ron Fromm, right, Chairman and CEO of Brown Shoe Company, from St. Louis, Missouri, walk through the newly opened Famous Footwear plant in the Tejon Industrial Complex, Thursday morning. Brown Shoe Company is the parent company of Famous Footwear.
Casey Christie / The Californian Famous Footwear's new large distribution center has officially opened at the Tejon Industrial complex, south of Bakersfield.
Casey Christie / The Californian Famous Footwear employees put together packing boxes at the new distribution center in the Tejon Industrial Complex on Dennis McCarthy Drive.
Casey Christie / The Californian Manuel Bravo of Bakersfield works in the newly opened Famous Footwear distribution center in the Tejon Industrial Complex.
Casey Christie / The Californian Workers package shoes for distribution at the Famous Footwear's new large distribution center which officially opened thursday at the Tejon Industrial complex, south of town.
Casey Christie / The Californian Tejon Ranch Company Vice President to Commercial and Industrial Development, Barry Hibbard, left, and Ron Fromm, right, Chairman and CEO of Brown Shoe Company, from St. Louis, Missouri, walk through the newly opened Famous Footwear plant in the Tejon Industrial Complex, Thursday morning. Brown Shoe Company is the parent company of Famous Footwear.
Casey Christie / The Californian Chairman and CEO of Brown Shoe Company, from St. Louis, Missiouri, left, and Tejon Ranch Company Vice President to Commercial and Industrial Development, Barry Hibbard, tour the newly opened Famous Footwear plant in the Tejon Industrial Complex, Thursday morning. Brown Shoe Company is the parent company of Famous Footwear.
The new Famous Footwear distribution center at the foot of The Grapevine should go a long way toward ending any debate over whether Kern County's geography and work force can help increase business efficiency.
Until the retail chain's owner, St. Louis-based Brown Shoe Co., opened the 350,000-square-foot plant last month, the company would bring in shoes from the Los Angeles-Long Beach port complex, ship them to distribution centers in Tennessee and Wisconsin, then haul a good many of them all the way back to the West Coast.
With all that waste now eliminated, it's no wonder Brown Shoe and its partners, including Lebec landowner Tejon Ranch Co., took the morning off Thursday to celebrate the new building, which now employs 75 people and soon may add another 30 to 50 workers.
Thursday's event also provided a rare glimpse into the kind of logistics operation Tejon Ranch hopes to see more of along that stretch of Interstate 5.
The plant boasts five miles of conveyor belts with the capacity to move 32 million pairs of shoes a year to Famous Footwear's 300 stores west of the Rockies.
"We're keeping the stock at all times, going in and replenishing or refilling the stores' stock," said Jerry Essex, Brown Shoe's vice president of retail logistics, who along with more than 30 other company workers spent the last 18 months getting the plant operational.
Chairman and CEO Ron Fromm hailed the project as a big step forward in the company's efforts to get products to customers more quickly and inexpensively.
"We're able to serve our customers on the West Coast better," Fromm said.
He added that the company searched four states for a good location, and settled on that piece of Kern County because of its central location and its quality work force, which he said has "surpassed our expectations."
As part of a series of speeches at the building Thursday, Kern Supervisor Ray Watson welcomed Brown Shoe.
"This is a very important addition to the economy of Kern County," he said, adding that according to an economic impact formula, the plan creates 300 jobs in the county.
