March 6, 2003

Antioch Co. delays operations move The Antioch Company’s plans to move a small portion of its local operations to Fairborn have been delayed because of the weather. In an interview Monday, Carol Gasho, Operations Manager of the local facility, said that The Antioch Company signed in December a seven-year lease for the old Robards warehouse building near I-675. There warehouse is currently home to Morris Home Furnishings, and the Antioch Company will occupy half of the facility. Twenty-five employees will work at the new facility. The company originally had hoped to have the new facility operating by March 3, Gasho said, but weather issues have delayed the move. The Antioch Company now plans to begin operations at the Fairborn facility, which it calls “Yellow Springs West,” by March 17. Gasho said that the delay has not caused any major problems for the company. The Antioch Company had originally planned to move equipment before it transferred the products that will be stored in the new facility, but the weather has forced Antioch to move its products first, Gasho said. Gasho said that initially the new facility will serve as a warehouse and distribution facility for Antioch Publishing, the Yellow Springs-based operations, and a new Antioch Company business unit, Our Own Image, which is scheduled to begin sales in June. By mid-April the company hopes to move to Fairborn bookmaking equipment to serve as “a focused-factory for the Antioch Publishing Company and as a distribution center for Our Own Image,” she said. The new facility will include 55,000 to 60,000 square feet of warehousing and manufacturing space, depending on how the company decides to allocate the space for different storage equipment. The company first announced the move last November. In an interview at that time, Gasho said that the availability of office and warehouse space in Fairborn was the impetus for the move. She indicated that because of the company’s growth rate, an estimated 20 percent compounded over the last decade, it was necessary to seek additional space. Gasho also said that leasing the building in Fairborn would present far fewer headaches than building new space in Yellow Springs.