On Sept. 23, Winsupply Inc., one of the largest distributors in the nation, broke ground on the future home of the Richard W. Schwartz Center for Innovation. Located at the corner of Kettering Blvd. and Big Hill Rd. in Moraine, Ohio, the facility will also be the new home of Winsupply of Dayton, a local distributor serving plumbing contractors in the Dayton market. Winsupply of Dayton will move from its current location at 427 Washington St. Opening is expected in the summer of 2021.

The Richard W. Schwartz Center for Innovation will serve as a local training facility for Winsupply Support Services employees and where new, innovative support services for the company’s 600 distributor locations will be piloted and finalized. Winsupply has some 275 people working at its adjacent campus in Moraine, at 3110 Kettering Blvd. and 3131 S. Dixie Drive. The employees in the two buildings play a key role in the success of Winsupply’s 600 operating companies nationwide by offering back office support services. These services include capital and financial resources, management consulting, sourcing and logistics, e-commerce, information technology, accounting, payroll and more.

“Having the capability to work side-by-side with Winsupply of Dayton, an actual operating company, allows them to obtain real-world feedback from the local distributor employees using their services in real time,” said John McKenzie, president of Winsupply Inc. “We will be pioneering our most innovative services in the early stages here.

“Innovation has long played an important part in Winsupply’s success,” McKenzie continued. “Our chairman, Rick Schwartz, spearheaded automation at Winsupply with our first IBM computer system not long after he joined the company in 1972. He led the development of our enterprise resource planning system that every Winsupply location uses for order processing, accounting and financial reporting, inventory management, and so much more. We named this the Richard W. Schwartz Center for Innovation because of the legacy Rick created at Winsupply in advancing the way we do things, making it possible for our distributor locations to work efficiently and serve their customers as the best in the industry. This facility continues his heritage of finding new ways to automate and grow our company.”

Schwartz graciously acknowledged the honor during the groundbreaking: “I want to thank the executive leadership for naming the facility in the spirit of what I believe in. This training company is something I’ve been advocating. The ability for our support services teams to work side by side with an operating local company will be invaluable and will actually help speed up the time to market for our newest services.”

The new facility will encompass 28,000 square feet and connect to the existing campus by a walkway.