Uline expansion includes adding 200 jobs in Kenosha County

Uline is actively recruiting for 200 open jobs and planning for more than 4.5 million square feet of new development in Kenosha County over the next two years.

The Pleasant Prairie-based company distributes shipping, industrial and packaging materials to customers throughout North America. Chief Human Resources Officer Gil De Las Alas says the planned expansion will facilitate continued growth at the business and bring more operations from leased space into company-owned facilities. 

In an interview yesterday, he said Uline is looking to promote employment opportunities in Wisconsin amid the competitive labor market. 

“Our business is growing, and so we want to be able to support that growth,” he told WisBusiness.com. “The warehouses in Kenosha help support and supply other Uline distribution centers around the country … As we have growth in other parts of the country, the Kenosha campus helps support the growth in other places as well.” 

The company currently employs about 9,000 workers overall, including 3,500 in Kenosha County alone. Of the 200 new positions Uline is looking to fill, 150 are warehouse roles and the other 50 are customer service jobs. 

De Las Alas explained Uline’s customers are increasingly calling and emailing to place orders or get questions answered, and the additional positions will help meet that rising volume of inquiries. While the business is looking to fill other positions elsewhere during this expansion effort, these jobs will all be located in southeastern Wisconsin, he said. 

Meanwhile, the planned addition of 4.5 million square feet of new space would bring the company’s footprint in Kenosha County to about 14.5 million square feet. 

Uline has begun work on the first of four facilities on a 350-acre plot purchased late last year, a 1.4 million square-foot distribution center that would be its largest warehouse once complete. And construction has begun on another facility in Bristol, according to project details from the company. 

De Las Alas said the current timeline for the overall project is 18-24 months, based on the latest details he’s received from construction teams. 

“Even though that’s the horizon, we have a fairly large footprint throughout Kenosha … We can absorb the added headcount in the short term, and that’s why we’re hiring now,” he said.

See more on the expansion plans: https://www.wisbusiness.com/2023/uline-expands-its-footprint-and-workforce-in-wisconsin/ 

–By Alex Moe