Fremont-based supply chain management company ALOM is ramping up a new 170,000-square-foot fulfillment center in Sacramento that will feature an isolated 12,200-square-foot, fire-rated battery storage area.
The new ALOM facility is on a long-term lease in a 240,000-square-foot building developed by Sacramento commercial real estate company Buzz Oates in Metro Air Park.
“We are based in Fremont, and it is very expensive to operate in the Bay Area,” said CEO and founder Hannah Kain, in an interview.
She said Sacramento is a great distribution location, and it offers an attractive labor market where housing for employees is more affordable than the Bay Area.
ALOM offers business customers supply chain, logistics, warehousing and light contract manufacturing services to other businesses, many in the Fortune 500, she said.
Many of its customers are in the medical and electronics industries. ALOM offers them final assembly and uploads of software services before products are sent to customers, she said.
In the Sacramento location, ALOM is installing its California battery center, which will house and store lithium-ion batteries for a variety of industries and uses outside of the automotive industry. ALOM does work with the auto industry, but not at this location, Kain said.
The Sacramento battery storage will be for consumer and industrial electronics as well as for utilities and home battery storage systems.
The Sacramento center is now partially operational as it's still being built out. The Sacramento center is expected to fully open in August. Kain said the local workforce should reach between 50 and 150 employees next year.
“We are totally customer-driven,” she said, explaining that the local workforce will depend on what kind of work customers need done in Sacramento. If Sacramento ends up being mostly racks, storage and forklifts, it won’t require as many employees as compared to having more light manufacturing, assembly or fulfillment work that requires more workers.
This will be ALOM’s 20th location globally on five continents.
The company has a global workforce of between 500 and 1,000 people in a mix of payroll and temporary employees, which is driven by customer demand.
“Whatever they need, we do,” Kain said.
She declined to disclose ALOM's annual revenue.
The company worked with fire protection experts to develop its battery storage area.
“Battery storage safety was a top priority. ALOM is proud to take a leadership role in implementing a comprehensive fire protection strategy that will detect and contain a fire initiating within lithium-ion batteries stored in our facility,” said Brandon Marugg, ALOM chief operating officer, in a news release. “These measures reduce the risks and impacts from a fire spreading to other inventory while ensuring the safety of our workforce."
A fire in May at a battery storage center in San Diego burned for 15 days, Kain said. Thermal runaway is an issue with storing batteries, and ALOM is addressing the risk with its fire-safety protocols.
In addition to segregating the battery storage area with fire-proof materials and steel doors, it designed the storage area so that it can quickly remove batteries from the building if needed. It also built thermographic infrared heat scanning and smoke detection systems into the storage area.
The company is incorporating fire detection and protection systems it pioneered in Sacramento at one of its other facilities in Indiana, Kain said.
