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August 31, 1998
First Union to Build Distribution Center
Facility Is Unique Approach in Financial Services Industry
CHARLOTTE - First Union announced plans today for a 250,000-square foot customer correspondence and distribution center in the Twin Lakes industrial park that will ultimately house up to 250 employees. The center, expected to open by March 1, 1999, will handle all of First Union's fulfillment operations and will also handle a large portion of the company's direct mail distributions and customer statements.
Dale Quigg, senior vice president and director of the First Union General Services Division, said the center will bring together functions that are currently decentralized throughout the company or handled by outside vendors. Centralizing these operations into a single facility that operates around-the-clock is a unique approach in the financial services industry that will give First Union a competitive advantage, he said.
"Creating a central clearinghouse for customer mailings will not only make us more efficient, but also will enable us to provide better service," Quigg said. "With the growing popularity of telephone banking, we expect to see a significant increase in the volume of customer mailings. We want to make it easy for those customers to bank from home, so it's important that we have a state-of-the-art mailing center. "At the same time, we now have the ability to do more targeted marketing to customers than ever before, which will increase our volume of direct mail," he added.
Debbie Hartley, a 20-year veteran with the company, has been named director of Fulfillment and Warehouse Operations for the new center. Hartley, a vice president, joined First Union through the 1985 merger with Atlantic Bancorporation in Jacksonville, where she served 12 years as purchasing manager for the Florida bank. In 1993, she transferred to Charlotte as Quality manager for the company's Automation and Operations Division. She has a bachelor's degree in business management from the University of North Florida.
Curt Novotny has been named vice president and director of Statement Printing and Mailing Operations. He comes to First Union from First Data Corp. in Omaha, where he worked for 10 years, ultimately as manager of the card production operation. He earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from Bellevue University.
Brian Newlin, vice president in First Union's Corporate Real Estate Division, is facility planner for the center. "The bottom line for us is to create a center that can deliver the best service at the smartest cost," Newlin said. First Union has contracted with Omni Architecture and with Shelco as the contractor.
First Union Corporation (NYSE:FTU) is a leading provider of financial services to more than 16 million retail and corporate customers throughout the East Coast and the nation. At June 30, 1998, First Union had assets of $229 billion. Total stockholders' equity was $17 billion. The company operates full service banking offices in Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
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