APL Logistics consolidates operations

APL Logistics consolidates operations    APL Logistics is closing offices in Jacksonville, Fla., and Oak Brook, Ill., as part of a reorganization and streamlining initiative announced last fall.
   A spokesman said the “aim is to put our cost structure on a more sustainable footing,” adding it was too soon to know how many jobs might be lost. “But this work is intended primarily to consolidate locations, not eliminate positions,” he said.
   Last November the company said it would change the way APL Logistics' business is managed “to create efficiencies and clearer line of sight of roles and accountabilities.”
   The Jacksonville and Oak Brook offices are being consolidated into other locations in Northville, Mich., near Detroit, and Phoenix, where the company is also moving the North American regional headquarters for both APL Logistics and APL, its sister liner shipping company.
   All told, Neptune Orient Lines, parent of APL and APL Logistics, said last fall it expected to reduce its workforce by about 1,000 jobs, with the largest impacts in North America, as part of an effort to reduce operating costs.