Symbol Technologies, a leading manufacturer of bar coding equipment, chose McAllen for its primary distribution center, a $33 million project. It is close to the company's factory just across the border in Reynosa, Mexico.

DCs, Call Centers
Like Bilingual Border

Along the state's 1,240-mile (1,995-km.) border with Mexico are many facilities closely linked with the Mexican maquilas. This makes the U.S. side of the Rio Grande a prime location for distribution centers.
        The region's Hispanic population also makes it attractive for call centers that seek bilingual employees. McAllen has attracted its share of call centers with more than 5,000 jobs flowing into the area in recent years with Ticketmaster, Convergys, Penncro and other firms moving in.
        Proximity to a cross-border plant led one high-tech firm to the region. When Symbol Technologies, a maker of bar code scanners, mobile computers and wireless LANs, went looking for a site for its primary distribution center, the search for a city was essentially done in the time it takes to read a bar code. With Symbol's primary manufacturing site in Reynosa, Mexico, McAllen, just across the U.S. border, was the logical location.
        "It made sense to move across the bridge and use McAllen as a distribution point," says Joe Williamson, vice president of worldwide distribution for Symbol, a company with $1.45 billion in 2001 sales. After seven months of construction and six more months of ramping up, the 334,000-sq.-ft. (31,000-sq.-m.) facility opened last January in McAllen's Sharyland Business Park, employing 250.
        Williamson says the custom-designed distribution center is a virtual showplace for Symbol's equipment. The facility employs the company's technology and its own wireless network. Its two functions are to distribute new products to customers around the world and to serve as a staging area to move products in need of repair to the plant in Mexico.
        While El Paso hasn't seen much new industrial activity of late, it has attracted some significant call center projects. One is Telerx, a Horsham, Pa., provider of customer services. The company is building a 40,000-sq.-ft. (3,700-sq.-m.) contact center that will initially employ 170 and may eventually employ more than 500. Amy S. Abrams, company president, cites available bilingual labor as an attraction to El Paso. She says the site also puts the company closer to its clients in the Western U.S.