The Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative conducted an analysis of the economic impacts of wholesale trade in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties and released an Economic and Workforce Brief, “Role of Wholesale Trade in the Economy of Lackawanna & Luzerne Counties.” The Brief quantifies the role of every 100 workers employed by the hardware manufacturing industry in generating jobs, compensation, and property taxes in the region.

This Brief helps explain the impact of plans recently announced by McLane Company, which is based in Texas, to invest $60 million to build a 400,000 square-foot wholesale grocery distribution center in Jessup. McLane’s new distribution center will provide grocery distribution services for convenience store chains, mass merchandisers and drug stores in the mid-Atlantic region. The distribution center will be located in a Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone, which entitles the company to certain tax benefits. The company will receive a $525,000 funding package offer from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that includes a grant of up to $300,000 through the opportunity grant program and up to $225,000 in customized job training funds. The company’s total investment in the project is reported to be $60 million. For more information about the opening of the McLane Company distribution center anticipated to in June 2008 in Jessup, refer to the following website:
http://tinyurl.com/27qba6

Data from the 2002 Economic Census, the most recent economic census available, indicate that there were 121 establishments in the Pennsylvania involved in general-line grocery merchant wholesale that generated $4.1 billion in receipts (3.6% of US receipts in general-line grocery merchant wholesale) with 6,288 employees (4.7% of US employees in general-line grocery merchant wholesale) and an annual payroll of $266.6 million (4.9% of US payroll in general-line grocery merchant wholesale). The analysis in the Brief focuses on the impact of the entire wholesale trade industry in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.

An analysis behind a Penn State Economic & Workforce Brief targets an industry (a group of establishments providing similar products or services), not an individual firm. As a result, economic and workforce impacts calculated for a Brief represent an industry average, not the impacts generated by an individual firm.

For additional information about this Brief or about the work of the Penn State Workforce Education and Development Initiative, contact Rose M. Baker (814.865.9919; rmb194@psu.edu) or David L. Passmore (814.863.2583; dlp@psu.edu). To view other Brief reports produced about other Pennsylvania industries and regions, navigate to: http://PSUBrief.notlong.com
Order a Brief for your area using a form provided on this web site.