Wolverine World Wide warehouses get foreign trade zone status

When Wolverine World Wide Inc. consolidates all its North American distribution in West Michigan, warehouses here technically will be newly designated foreign trade zones.

Distribution centers in Rockford, Cedar Springs and Howard City are in the new subzone, a free-trade status that will save money and eventually, the company said, add jobs.

"In the past we've had to pay duty upon entrance to the U.S.," said Jeff Gorski, senior director of integrated logistics. "When it hits the Port of Seattle or Long Beach (Calif.), we had to pay duty."

That fee ranged from 8 to 36 percent. Now, boxed pairs of shoes will land in the region's distribution centers duty-free, at least for a while.

"We will not pay duty until we ship them out to our end customer in the U.S.," Gorski said.

And if the shoes are bound for feet beyond U.S. borders, the whole duty-paying exercise is avoided. No duty paid inbound; no duty owed outbound.

"The foreign trade zone is a big thing," company spokeswoman Christi Cowdin said.

It will allow us to bring additional jobs to Michigan in support of that."

Wolverine's distribution centers are in a subzone of the general-purpose foreign trade zone for Kent, Ottawa, and Muskegon counties.

To read the complete article, see the West Michigan Business online.