Getting products from the warehouse to the customer in a cost-efficient way takes the right equipment and logistical know-how. That's what Intelligrated, one of the region's fastest-growing companies, specializes in.
Mason-based Intelligrated doesn't build the warehouse, but supplies just about everything that goes inside it -- from computer software to conveyor systems and other material handling equipment. The company was started by Christopher Cole and Jim McCarthy in 2001, about a week before the Sept. 11 attacks. With a rented building and fewer than 20 employees, the start-up was able to weather the downturn that followed that tragedy and now employs about 500. The Cincinnati-area site includes a research and development and product demonstration facility. Its growth has required the addition of a manufacturing facility northeast of Cincinnati in London, Ohio, and regional operations in Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, and Texas.
Its customers include major retailers, direct-to-consumer, mail order and Internet-based businesses and the client list includes Amazon, Lowe's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Avon, Bed Bath and Beyond and Staples.
Intelligrated's founders recently received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year 2008 Award in the manufacturing category in South Central Ohio and Kentucky. "We have worked hard to keep the entrepreneurial spirit that brought us together at the heart of our business," says CEO Chris Cole.