Associated Terminals held a Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony for their state-of-the-art St. Bernard Hwy. office building. The office space, attached to a warehouse, was badly damaged after Hurricane Katrina and sat vacant for several years before it was purchased and renovated by the company.

Associated Terminals moved into the office building in April of 2012. The company expects the modern 10,000 square foot facility to significantly enhance their operation by providing a space to conduct on-sight training, multiple meeting rooms for employees and customers. Additionally, the facility is built to support future employment growth, which company officials are projecting to increase over the next few years.

President of Associated Terminals Todd Fuller, spoke about the company’s growth over the past decade, and says they have plans to keep the trend going well into the future.

“Ten years ago, we started with 35 employees, shipping about 1 million tons of cargo,” Fuller explained. “Now we’re up to around 150 employees and last year we shipped 7.5 million tons of cargo.”

Company-wide, Associated Terminals employs around 350. Fuller says that the company has seen the majority of its growth at the St. Bernard location. Given its prime position on the Mississippi River, Fuller stated that he couldn’t “stress enough the importance of the facility”.

“This is a vital riverway, and highway on getting products to the country, and we’re sitting at the heart of it,” said Fuller.

As far as future plans go, Fuller explained that Associated Terminals hopes to expand their ocean, rail, and truck vessels per year, which ultimately will lead to job creation.

Associated Terminals serves as an exclusive marine terminal operator at the Port of St. Bernard’s Chalmette Slip. The location offers customers efficient dockside transfer between vessel, rail, truck and storage. Services provided by Associate Terminals include dry bulk handling, general cargo handling, project cargo and heavy lifts, rail to barge transfers, midstream stevedoring, logistics support, and on-site storage.

The Associated Terminals office building and warehouse is located at 8000 St. Bernard Hwy. in Arabi.