SMART products will ship from UPS logistics center in Kentucky
CALGARY, Alberta --- March 25, 2009 --- SMART Technologies announces plans to open a United States Logistics Center (USLC) in Louisville, Kentucky. UPS will operate the center at Worldport, the company’s global air package sorting facility. All SMART products destined for U.S. customers will be shipped from the Louisville center, ensuring fast and efficient service. From Louisville, 75 percent of SMART’s U.S. customers can be accessed via two-day ground service once an order is ready to ship. The new logistics arrangement will reduce total order processing and delivery time for SMART’s customers by as much as 70 percent. UPS was chosen because of its proven record as the world’s leading express carrier, contract logistics and delivery company.
Scheduled to be fully operational in May 2009, the USLC will initially occupy 45,000 square feet (4,180 square meters) of space at the UPS campus. SMART will ship its products to Louisville in bulk from its assembly plant in Canada and from contract manufacturers worldwide. This is the fourth global logistics center for SMART. The other three centers are in Maastricht, Netherlands, serving Europe, the Middle East and Africa; in Ottawa, Canada, serving Canada; and in Shanghai, China, serving Asia Pacific. SMART is the leading supplier of interactive whiteboards in the United States. In 2008, the company shipped close to 160,000 SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards to U.S. customers, representing a 59.4 percent product category share, according to a recent report from Futuresource Consulting, an independent research company that has tracked interactive whiteboard sales for eight years.
“UPS is pleased SMART has trusted the company to manage all distribution efforts for SMART’s products across the U.S.” says Brad Mitchell, president of UPS Global Logistics and Distribution. “UPS will also manage inbound ocean freight from Asia and outbound freight from Canada for SMART.”
“At SMART, we strive every day to make the extraordinary simple it’s evident in our products, our support and every aspect of our business, including customer service,” says Nancy Knowlton, SMART’s CEO. “The opening of the logistics center in Louisville means simpler, quicker and more efficient delivery of SMART products to our U.S. customers.”
