Another Boulder company picks Weld

BOULDER — Weld County has lured another company from Boulder.
TSN Inc., a cleaning-products wholesaler, is growing at a rate of 20 to 25 percent per year, and the 100,000-square-foot Gunbarrel warehouse it is currently in cannot keep up with space needs, said Paul Kelley, chief financial officer.
The company plans to build a new 165,000-square-foot building in Del Camino South, on the east side of Interstate 25 one mile south of Colorado Highway 119 in Weld County. TSN employs about 75, including warehouse workers and truck drivers.
Although no final contract has been signed, TSN has an agreement with the property owner to buy 12 to 15 acres and plans to move within 12 to 18 months, Kelley said.
Land costs in Del Camino Center run about $1.25 to $1.75 per square foot, said commercial broker Ken Kanemoto, a broker with Prudential LTM Realtors in Longmont. Leased warehouse space in Boulder County runs about $8.30 per square foot, plus expenses.
Specifics are not available yet on the cost of the new building, said Jim Neenan, president of the Fort Collins-based Neenan Co., which is expected to handle the construction, but there should be productivity gains from creating specific heights for bays and warehouse spaces, Neenan said.
"This property is maxed out in terms of any further expansion, and the new building would put us right next to I-25," Kelley said. "We run a fleet of tractor-trailers, and this would facilitate them."
With projected sales of $70 million in the coming year, TSN is a large firm with a low profile. It was founded in 1990 by partners Israel "Izzy" Salazar and Ted Nelson, two salesmen already involved in retail supply.
Salazar, the president, says he˜s the second-largest minority-owned business in the state behind the Burt Group family business of car dealerships in the Denver area.
When TSN moved to Gunbarrel in late 1994, it used 60,000 square feet of its current space. Its main client is McLane Western in Longmont on Highway 119, a branch of McLane Co. Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart
Stores Inc.
"Mainly, we˜re in this corridor because, as we˜ve grown, our employee base is in this corridor. When we needed to expand and move out of Louisville, this facility was the best at the time," Kelley said. "We had a short time to get moved, and this was the building."
If TSN continues its growth, rather than moving out of the planned new building, it would build a new facility on the East Coast, Kelley said.
The phenomenal growth has come, in part, with the growth of the "just-in-time" sales concept across the United States. TSN, a combination of Salazar˜s and Nelson˜s initials, is committed to 99 percent of its distributor orders being filled in a seven-day turnaround time, Kelley said. Because TSN buys in bulk, it can provide better pricing at a quick distribution rate.
"We˜re kind of a niche player in a market where we can provide customers with fast turnaround," Kelley said. "In this day and age, turns are extremely important with the cost of warehouse space."
Lower costs at the planned new warehouse should help the company grow, he added.
"We need the cheapest warehouse space, because that˜s the biggest cost," Kelley said. "Any facility is looking for turn to maximize movement in and out of the warehouse. If they bring in a product, and it sits on the shelf too long, it starts costing them money."
Electronic inventory devices are what make the "just-in-time" concept work, Kelley said. In the last several years, businesses have been able to more closely track their inventory, giving them more-accurate forecasting methods and increasing the number of turns of products through a warehouse.
Finding employees in the Boulder County area, however, is a big problem, Kelley said. Current employees live in the north metro area, ranging from Longmont and Louisville to Broomfield and other north Denver suburbs.