Springfield’s Transportation Assets Are Good for Business

National corporations like Speedway, Silfex, and Topre America are expanding in Springfield, in part, because of the conveniences offered by area transportation assets. From Springfield and Clark County, businesses have immediate access to Interstate 70 and Interstate 675.  With Interstates 71 and 75 in close proximity, the location provides easy access to the majority of the U.S. population in under a day. Those transporting products via rail benefit from Clark County being served by the Indiana and Ohio Railway and Norfolk Southern. In addition, two miles south of Springfield and I-70 is a regional airport that provides travel and cargo transportation solutions. The Dayton International Airport and Port Columbus airport provide passenger and commercial service less than an hour away as well.

Regardless of how a business receives materials, ship products or have their people travel – Springfield, Ohio has the transportation assets necessary to make the process easy and convenient. 

Springfield’s Transportation Assets Make it an Ideal Location for Company Headquarters 

Locally-based Speedway, a national convenience store chain, has grown exponentially from their Clark County location. They are now the largest U.S. – operated chain of convenience stores. In October, they announced an agreement to separate Speedway from Marathon with plans to take the company public. Gary Heminger, the retiring CEO of Marathon Petroleum Corp., said, “We have built Speedway into an exceptional business. Over the past eight years we have grown Speedway nearly four-fold from roughly $400 million of annual EBITDA to approximately $1.5 billion.” (Gnau, 2019). 

Clark County has supported the company’s growth and given tax breaks to incentivize a $48 million expansion that will add a new 140,000 square-foot building to Speedway’s campus off of Enon Road. Speedway is one of the largest employers in the region and has approximately 2,500 employees locally and employs 40,000 people nationally (Karim, 2019). 

With such a large national footprint, that Speedway chose to base their headquarters in Springfield is telling. It tells the story of what a convenient location combined with a strong workforce and government support can do for a corporation. 

Speedway isn’t the only company reaping the benefits of a Springfield location. Topre America Corp., Silfex and Code Blue are also among the companies expanding in the county. Silfex, for example, invested more than $223-million and Code Blue is hiring 169 more people. Combined, these companies expect to create over 600 new jobs in the area over the next two to four years, contributing to a 5 percent increase in Clark County manufacturing jobs year over year (Karim, 2019).

Local, family-owned businesses, are benefitting from Springfield’s location as well. Sheehan Brothers Vending, for example, started in Springfield and now serves 26 counties from their headquarters. The company has been rapidly expanding, and easy access to the interstate going in all directions has played a significant role in their ability to do so. Dan Sheehan, CEO of Sheehan Brothers Vending, said of their location in Springfield, “Locally, we can access I-70 and I-75 - jump on them and we go in any direction to reach our customers quickly. This includes customers in Cincinnati, Columbus and up to Indiana border. To reach customers in 26 counties, we go out in all directions. Springfield is a midway point to reach all those markets.”

These businesses represent just a few of the companies who are growing in Springfield, and leveraging the area’s transportation assets to do so. Some of the notable corporations with a manufacturing presence in Springfield are:

• HDI Landing Gear
• Yamada
• Cascade
• Konecranes 
• Dole
• Woeber Mustard
• McGregor Metalworking
• Navistar
• Sutphen

Come Discover Springfield

We invite you to visit Springfield and to discover what these businesses have – Springfield makes it easy to do business and our location offers time and cost-saving benefits. Though there are 35 Springfields in the United States, this is the one you want to know about, and this is where you want to be. 

For more information about Springfield and Clark County, contact us.