MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – If all goes as planned, WVU Medicine and Owens & Minor (NYSE: OMI) will employ about 100 in a 350,000-square foot distribution center in WestRidge valued at $50 million by February of 2024. WVU Medicine Chief Supply Chain Officer Paul Gallagher said crews will excavate the site through the winter months and work on the building should begin in the spring of 2023.
“We’ve concluded all of the appropriate testing to make sure we can build and I think the bulldozers are en-route, if they haven’t arrives already to start pushing dirt,” Gallagher said. ” So we’re bullish about it, we’ve pushing hard to get things moving.”
In the best case scenario, Gallagher said in about 14 months workers will be preparing supplies for delivery across the WVU Medicine system and other clients. The schedule assumes weather conditions for construction will be optimal and there are no supply chain issues.
“Initially probably about 100 or around 150,” Gallagher said. “We’ve specced the facility to be 350,000-square feet, so that could potentially double in the next two to three years.”
WVU Medicine began to look for a partner, or a solution when the pandemic wiped out PPE supplies almost overnight. Health care workers were forced to improvise and even reuse PPE from shift-to-shift.
When supplies became short during the pandemic people, businesses and organizations began to donate PPE, but those supplies varied greatly in style, age and quality.
“It also gives us the security of having product during natural disasters and events like that,” Gallagher said. ” It’s a really crucial piece to health care, and it’s understated.”
Gallagher said WVU Medicine believes they can cut costs by five to seven percent by manufacturing PPE in America. He explained PPE is largely manufactured by machine, so labor costs for most items are not high.
This facility will provide clinical supplies, clinical and surgical kits and perform custom procedure tray assembly and sterilization.
“We contracted with Owens & Minor for a multitude of reasons,” Gallagher said. “Not only because they would build a facility in West Virginia, but because they satisfy 22 categories of PPE and other med-surge products they make here in the United States.”
According to Gallagher, both companies have growth plans that could increase the workforce to nearly 300 by 2027. He said this will be an exciting time for people looking to start a career on the ground floor with two industry leaders.
“When you look at the West Virginia landscape and WVU Medicine bringing in a partner like Owens & Minor that has the same type of leadership outlook it gives great benefit to any employees who decide to stay here or decide to become employed here,” Gallagher said.
Owens & Minor employs about 20,000 people in 70 countries and is celebrating the 140th year of operation.