There’s a brand new link in Gap Inc.’s supply chain.
The company officially inaugurated its newly built fulfillment center in Longview, Texas on Wednesday, an 850,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility that will be able process up to 1 million units per day.
Construction on the new $140 million hub, which will initially handle Old Navy’s e-commerce business exclusively, began in April 2021. A portion of the facility began operations a month ago and already processes 50,000 items daily.
With the addition of center, the fashion conglomerate will be able to process 4 million units per day during peak season. Its six extant fulfillment facilities in North America are in Fresno, Calif.; Phoenix, Ariz.; Groveport, Ohio; Gallatin, Tenn.; Fishkill, N.Y. and Brampton, Ontario. Most handle both online and retail orders for the $16.7 billion company’s stable of brands that include Old Navy, Gap, Banana Republic and Athleta.
The new building in East Texas, 128 miles from Dallas, boasts cutting-edge robotic systems and automation technology. “As we continue to deliver on our growth strategy, the launch of our Longview Customer Experience Center is another opportunity to further unlock the power of technology and automation, evolve the way we work, diversify our business and deliver an exceptional experience for customers,” said Kevin Kuntz, Gap Inc.’s head of supply chain, at the ribbon cutting ceremony, which was attended by local figures from the cities of Longview and Tyler, state leaders and community and business VIPs.
The new site is projected to create more than 500 full-time jobs in Longview by the end of 2023. That number will grow to more than 1,000 full-time jobs in the city over the next five years. Additionally, the company expects to create more than 1,000 part-time and seasonal jobs by 2026.
The opening reflects Gap Inc.’s strategy, the so-called Power Plan 2023, to ramp up its growth and efficiency in filling orders. Earlier this summer it expanded operations at the Fishkill site by adding automated receiving, enhanced returns processing capabilities and new automated storage retrieval systems among other upgrades. Likewise, it invested more than $100 million to improve operations at the 400,000-square-foot Phoenix and 1.4 million-square-foot Gallatin locations prior to the holiday rush last year.