UTi Moves Swiftly to Return Baytown to Full Operations

UTi Worldwide’s Baytown operations swiftly returned to work after being shuttered in advance of Hurricane Rita. With a tremendous response by UTi’s associates working shoulder-to-shoulder with their Wal*Mart partners, as of Monday, October 3, the Baytown complex resumed full operations. UTi believes that any volume shortfall will be temporary and made up during October 2005.

Like so many in the Gulf Coast region, UTi faced a daunting challenge in the face of the approaching storm. UTi has 1,300 employees in the area operating Wal*Mart’s warehouse distribution services from its import storage complex in Baytown, Texas, just east of Houston on Galveston Bay. The fierce winds of Rita were visibly approaching the Texas coastline as we worked in close collaboration with Wal*Mart to secure the multi-million square-foot center and its contents.

With a mandatory evacuation ordered, all operations at Baytown were halted Thursday evening, September 22. Despite widespread devastation from the hurricane, which hit early Saturday morning, UTi’s employees weathered the storm safely and the facility suffered little damage.

Throughout the calamity that affected so many, UTi associates demonstrated their resilience in serving the supply chain needs of customers. Underscoring that dedication, a group of six associates was on site Saturday morning, within hours of the hurricane. With back-up generators in place, UTi moved swiftly to continue Wal*Mart's shipments of disaster relief supplies for the many victims of both Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. Putting personal challenges aside, by Sunday, September 25, more associates were back on board going above and beyond to restore systems to the warehouse and to find additional sources of fuel for the generators - even tracking down a tanker truck to be sure the fuel could be delivered. As of Monday morning, September 26, 125 associates reported to work. The number of associates had more than doubled by Tuesday, September 27, and it increased each day throughout the week as evacuees returned to the area.