DHL Supply Chain Teams with ADS to Expand Company’s Distribution Footprint Amid Building Boom

DHL Supply Chain, headquartered in Westerville, OH, the Americas leader in contract logistics and part of Deutsche Post DHL Group, and Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS), a leading provider of innovative water management solutions products used in the storm water and on-site septic wastewater industries, are expanding their existing strategic partnership. DHL will provide ADS its best-in-class transport and logistics suite of services to execute warehousing, fleet, and eCommerce solutions enhancing ADS’s production capabilities while enabling ADS to continue to deliver the necessary service levels to its customers.

ADS, based in Hilliard, OH, is expanding its distribution footprint amidst a pandemic-sparked surge in growth that has seen homeowners investing in DIY renovations and repairs, the largest uptick in building permits since 2006, and municipalities investing in infrastructure.

In 2019, DHL and ADS opened their first retail fulfillment center in Wilkes-Barre, PA to service customers in the northeast. The Wilkes-Barre facility services over 600 DIY retail stores with a 16 truck dedicated fleet. After a successful launch of the 100,000-square-foot facility in Wilkes-Barre, DHL and ADS have chosen to expand the program.  

The two companies will invest in DHL-operated facilities in Greer, SC, and Middletown, OH, to support ADS’s retail business, freeing up capacity for ADS to better support its commercial trade business. DHL will manage the new 131,000-square-foot facility in Greer and provide a 28 truck dedicated fleet to enable customized delivery to more than 700 DIY retail locations across the Southeast. Through advanced tools and digitalization efforts, the two companies will be able to reduce the carbon footprint of ADS deliveries by optimizing trailer space and implementing dynamic routing and round trip matching to reduce transportation miles. 

The 356,000-square-foot warehouse operation in Middletown will consolidate ADS’s growing eCommerce fulfillment operations and provide additional capacity for finished goods distribution throughout their network of 63 manufacturing plants and 33 distribution centers, enabling ADS to increase fill rates and reduce order cycle times. 

“Our industry experts in our construction and building supply vertical help our customers transform their supply chains into a core competitive advantage,” said Mark Kunar, Executive Vice President, DHL Supply Chain. “By providing daily operational excellence and instilling a culture of continuous improvement into our operations we are able to deliver effective end-to-end logistics solutions, enabling ADS to focus its time, skills, and knowledge on solving its customers’ water challenges with highly engineered solutions.” 

“ADS is committed to meeting the growing demand for our products and solutions and expanding our reach through a high quality, flexible, and speed of service logistics platform to execute our mission of better serving our customers,” said Scott Barbour, President and Chief Executive Officer, Advance Drainage Systems. “Working with DHL Supply Chain, we have an exciting opportunity to further strengthen our services and support our company’s goal of generating above-market growth through the execution of our material conversion and water management solutions strategies.” 

DHL Supply Chain offers an unrivalled portfolio of industrial supply chain management, warehousing, transportation, and value-added logistics services combining proven operational excellence with continuous innovation to deliver consistently outstanding service while breaking down the barriers that limit customer growth. To learn more, please visit DHL/AllBusinessNoBoundaries.

Advanced Drainage Systems is a leading provider of innovative water management solutions in the storm water and on-site septic wastewater industries, providing superior drainage solutions for use in the construction and agriculture marketplace. Its innovative products are used across a broad range of end markets and applications, including non-residential, residential, infrastructure and agriculture applications. The Company has established a leading position in many of these end markets by leveraging its national sales and distribution platform, overall product breadth and scale and manufacturing excellence. To learn more about the ADS, please visit the Company's website at www.ads-pipe.com.