STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Honey Stinger Chief Executive Officer Mike Keown announced Friday afternoon that Honey Stinger will be closing its Steamboat Springs warehouse, but the energy snack company will remain based in Steamboat.
“Within the last year, it became clear that our current Steamboat facility was not large enough nor capable of supporting the needs of our growing business,” Keown said. “After an extensive search of other options in Steamboat and the surrounding communities, we quickly realized another facility wasn’t an option and we made the difficult decision to close.”
The warehouse, which is located at 2620 S. Copper Frontage Road on Steamboat’s west side, has been in operation at that location since 2015. It has served as the sole distribution hub for all Honey Stinger products until a second facility opened in 2020 in Pennsylvania.
Keown said the growing business needed more space for pallets that what the warehouse could currently offer, needed temperature control for newer products and the space to accommodate more incoming and outgoing trucks.
That type of facility was not available in the area, and Keown said Honey Stinger made the hard choice to move its warehouse operations to Reno, Nevada, where it will partner with a company called Smart Warehousing to run the facility.
“When we looked at those type of needs from a growing business the current facility, or other facilities in the area, just were not available,” Keown said. “The Steamboat team has been fantastic job over the years, but the facility itself is small and doesn’t have the capabilities that we need.”
Eleven of Honey Stinger’s 52 employees will be impacted by the move. Two members of the current warehouse staff have been offered the opportunity to transition to the main office to assist with logistics. The remaining nine have a variety of plans in place to assist them with their transition to new opportunities over the next few months.
“Taking care of our people during this time is our top priority,” Keown said. “We wanted to have ample time and resources in place for them before we made these changes official. They have done a fantastic job getting this company to where it is today, and we are grateful of their efforts.”
Keown said the warehouse will close in July, but added that Honey Stinger remains committed to the Steamboat community. Honey Stinger relocated its headquarters to the airport building in July 2020, the space previously occupied by Smartwool before it moved to Denver.
“We have no intention of moving our main headquarters,” Keown said. “We really think of Steamboat as being integral to who we are as a brand and as a company and we continue to make investments in the community.”
To reach John F. Russell, call 970-871-4209, email [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @Framp1966.
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