Inland Empire Distribution Systems Inc., a Spokane Valley-based warehousing and distribution company, is experiencing its sixth consecutive year of growth, says Jim Ewers, company president and CEO.

“The growth we’re experiencing is due mostly to expanding services for our existing customers and gaining market share,” he says.  

Although the company came in about 2 percent below its projected revenue last quarter, Ewers says it saw an 11 percent revenue gain over the 2015 first quarter.

He says the company has budgeted for 10 percent revenue growth overall this year, mainly because of two large contracts it landed in the fourth quarter of last year. 

“Last year, we had about 7.5 percent growth,” he says. “The goal is to be up another 38 percent by the year 2020.”

IEDS is a privately held and operated third-party logistics service provider, which offers distribution center services, including inventory control for manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors. The company’s headquarters is located in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park at 3808 N. Sullivan. The majority of its 93 employees are in Spokane, but it also has operations in Pasco, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho. 

Altogether, IEDS operates 662,000 square feet of warehouse space regionally, which consists of a mixture of owned and leased space at its Spokane and Pasco locations. 

In addition to six warehouse buildings here, which encompass a total of 376,000 square feet, the company operates two “transload” yards, and also owns a 30-acre rail services property near Flora Road and Trent Avenue, northeast of the industrial park. 

Ewers says IEDS hasn’t yet developed that spot, as it is currently focused on expanding its Pasco location. 

“We’ll be adding anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 square feet at the Pasco warehouse location,” he says. 

The Pasco operation currently includes four warehouse facilities at 1211 E. St Helens, and one building in the Port of Pasco, for a total of 286,000 square feet of space. Ewers says the company possibly would be adding two more warehouses there, with construction starting as early as September. 

      “That location is primarily used for our consumer grocery and forestry sectors,” he says. 

The company’s Lewiston office services a transportation contract IEDS has with Clearwater Paper Corp.

Ewers says that while the company currently operates in four states—Washington, Idaho, North Carolina, and Nevada—it serves customers worldwide and is actively looking to expand its markets. 

“We’re working on things now that could take us into other markets,” says Ewers. “However, any market expansion likely wouldn’t take place until the fourth quarter this year, and on into 2017.”

He adds that the company also is expanding its leadership roles to include several new managerial positions, in anticipation of continued growth.

“Recruiting for positions has been difficult, as we’re just not seeing as many qualified candidates,” says Ewers. He says this could be due to low unemployment and job participation rates. 

“It’s just a tight market right now,” he says. 

The company’s services cover four market sectors: industrial, forestry, chemical, and consumer grocery products.  

“Those four market sectors all act as a kind of portfolio for us,” says Ewers. “Some are down and some are up, and for varying reasons. For the most part, manufacturing is still chugging along, although we are seeing some inventory backing up in the supply chain, which usually indicates a slower consumption rate.” 

IEDS currently serves some 250 corporations across the four sectors. Ewers says the company’s warehouses have seen an increase in inventory over the past six months, and that nationwide, warehouses are also fairly full.  

He says the industrial sector, which usually tracks with manufacturing, is following the national Gross Domestic Product growth fairly closely, although the company has some clients who serve specific niches that are outpacing the GDP. 

Aerospace continues to play a large role in the industrial sector. “Aerospace has been tracking well for the past 14 years, and I would expect it will continue to do well,” he says. 

In the industrial sector, the company also offers what is called vendor-managed inventory services for its regional manufacturers. 

Vendor-managed inventory is described as an inventory management technique in which a distributor like IEDS provides manufacturers with sales and inventory data needed to plan inventory and place orders. In a traditional arrangement, IEDS would handle inventory and order placement, but this way, a manufacturer can better manage its own inventory.  

“It’s an instrumental service to be able to offer in that sector,” says Ewers. 

Unlike the industrial sector, Ewers says the forestry sector isn’t doing as well as expected this year, despite the success of the homebuilding and housing markets. 

“This sector generally tracks with building materials, so I would have thought we’d see higher inventory velocity of building materials here. However, we are shipping a lot of materials from here to other parts of the country,” he says. 

He says the consumer grocery products sector continues to move along nicely, as that sector is impacted by the normal consumption of consumer products. 

“We also have expanded that sector in recent years, adding several large customers,” he says.  

Another industry that has been doing well is the chemical products market, which is influenced mainly by crop protection and generally stays fairly consistent from year to year, Ewers says. 

“This market is also influenced by the weather, international markets, finance strategies, and other factors, but so far, it seems to be doing well this year,” he says.

Ewers says the healthy amount of activity in that market may have something to do with the 2015 elimination of an interstate commerce tax. 

“We won’t know the full extent of the bill’s influence on the market for another two years or so, but so far this year that sector is doing well,” he says.  

In addition to warehouse services, storage, and inventory programs, IEDS also offers packaging and cross-dock loading. This process includes the unloading of materials from incoming semitrailer trucks or railroads, and loading those materials onto outbound trucks, trailers, or railcars with little or no storage in between.

Ewers says that lately the company’s truck and transportation division, which is divided into three categories, has been the company’s fastest-growing profit center. 

Those categories are common carrier (serving local clients), dedicated contract services (serving single clients with nationwide locations), and freight management (coordinating product distribution domestically for international clients). 

He says IEDS primarily serves clients in North America, and has about 40 drivers between its common carrier and dedicated contract services divisions.

The company is also the premier railroad “transloader” for the Burlington Northern Santa Fe and Union Pacific Railroads for central Washington, Eastern Washington, and Northern Idaho. 

According to Ewers, more than 150 cars are loaded or unloaded each month at the company’s Spokane Valley facilities. 

“We’re unique in that we provide a location that is serviced by both major railroads,” he says. 

The company’s Spokane Valley site also includes a foreign trade zone, which it established in 2002, in conjunction with the city of Spokane and the Spokane International Airport. 

“It serves as the utility foreign trade zone for the region’s importers and manufacturers, to defer tariffs while production is in the supply chain,” says Ewers. 

While the zone is still available for use as an economic development tool, Ewers says it hasn’t seen much use lately.

Founded by his father Bert in 1983, IEDS has been led by Jim Ewers for the past 21 years now. His brothers Dan and Matt Ewers also hold positions within the company. Dan serves as director of transportation and Matt as senior vice president of business development.