About 130 people will be affected by Thursday’s announcement by Zimmer that it will relocate its distribution center from its corporate headquarters in Warsaw to Memphis, Tenn.
The move, said company officials, was to improve customer responsiveness, among other reasons.
Memphis is the corporate headquarters of FedEx and being located so close to them would allow for more ability in same-day shipping of products.
Zimmer did look at Indianapolis where there is a FedEx hub, but that only serves about half the United States.
As for Warsaw’s distribution center, it employs between 120 and 130 people. Of that number, some are temporary employees and others are full time.
While the move will affect everyone in the Warsaw distribution center, the company will relocate a number of those employees into other positions within the company.
The move also comes as a cost-cutting one.
Besides the ability to more easily ship products from Memphis, in a statement released by the company, “these actions also are intended to partially offset the costs associated with the federal medical device excise tax, which will take effect in 2013.”
