Logistics & Supply Chains

Move Your Business Forward – We’re Connected.

According to the Central Florida Development Council, the middle of a state with 122,000 miles of highway, more than 3,000 miles of freight rail, six airports within 60 miles, and two international ports within 90 miles, Polk County is the logical place for logistics, supply chain and distribution companies to locate.

Location is a main reason companies come to Bartow, but other factors also play a role:

• Land is competitively priced – and there’s lots of it.
• Local government values economic development and works well with new businesses coming to Bartow.
• Workforce training is readily available, sometimes at no cost to employers.

And there’s access and infrastructure. Interstate 4 offers easy access to the northern part of the county, as State Road 60 and U.S. Highway 27 do to the south and east, respectively. Port Tampa Bay, an international facility, handles shipping 45 miles to the west, and the CSX Intermodal Logistics Center about 30 minutes southeast in Winter Haven offers rail service. Foreign Trade Zone 79 assists companies along the I-4 corridor to strengthen their international competitiveness in their respective industries.

To complete the picture, there’s access to people. Nearly 20 million people in Florida can be reached within a day, giving companies that locate here an advantage over competitors in the growing e-commerce and delivery markets.

With Fortune 500 companies like Publix, Amazon and Walmart already doing business in Polk County, it’s easy to see why others are following their trail.

Leading Education Programs

Polk State Corporate College Advanced Technology Center – Supply Chain and Logistics Institute: Designed specifically to support Central Florida’s rapidly growing logistics industry,  Polk State collaborated with leading training providers and component manufacturers to develop and deliver this specialized logistics curriculum. Polk State Corporate College works with CareerSource Polk to train new employees to prepare for the world’s supply chain requirements to keep things moving.

Florida Polytechnic – Business Analytics Degree, Concentration in Logistics & Supply Chain Management: This program gives students hands-on experience in analyzing supply chain efficiency across industries, developing systems integration technology and overcoming obstacles to always meet demand.

Florida Southern College – Supply Chain Management Graduate Certificate: This program is designed to address challenges to an organization’s internal supply chain and its external suppliers and customers.