AUSTINTOWN Snyder's to reopen Tamco facility

A tax abatement and two state grants gave the Valley location the winning edge.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Some of the 250 former workers left jobless when Phar-Mor closed the Tamco distribution center in mid-July will be getting calls from a new employer soon.
Snyder's Drug Stores, a Minnesota chain with stores in 16 states, announced it has signed a lease through 2012 for the Austintown center.
The 10-year lease is with Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle, which owns the building.
Dan Shapira, a Giant Eagle spokesman, said Snyder's has already called back about 20 former Tamco employees to begin receiving merchandise and will have the work force up to 100 "in the very near future."
He said Snyder's plans to employ close to 200 at the Victoria Road site as its business there grows and has promised to draw from the ranks of former Tamco workers.
Formerly a warehouse for Youngstown-based Phar-Mor, the Tamco center employed 377 at its peak, but closed this summer when the bankrupt discount drug store chain began liquidating its merchandise.
Company plans
Snyder's expects to have the facility fully operational by mid-November.
The Austintown facility will serve Snyder's 168 corporate stores and more than 100 independent retailers it supports around the country.
Negotiations so far have dealt only with the Tamco warehouse; Snyder's has not mentioned opening stores in the Valley.
Snyder's is making an initial investment of $20 million in inventory for the warehouse. The company said it will also invest in new technology and equipment.
Shapira said the Austintown facility was competing with another warehouse site in Kansas City, Kan., but an incentive package put together by state and local government officials and Giant Eagle helped clinch the deal.
"All of those things had to come together to make a very complicated deal come true," Shapira said.
Shapira and Gordon Barker, Snyder's president and chief executive, also credited Youngstown Mayor George McKelvey and other local government officials.
Austintown Trustee Rich Edwards and county Commissioner Ed Reese said the government bodies they represent were closely involved in the negotiations, and Walter Good of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Chamber said he helped coordinate the incentive package.
Union
Bob Bernat, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 377, which represented Tamco workers when the facility was run by Phar-Mor, said Snyder's has promised to negotiate a new contract.
The union had reached a contract with Snyder's earlier this year, but that was to take effect only if Snyder's succeeded in buying Tamco and some Phar-Mor stores in bankruptcy court.
Snyder's lost out to a group composed of liquidator Hilco Merchant Resources of Boston, Giant Eagle and CVS, a Rhode Island drugstore chain.
vinarsky@vindy.com