“Loading and offloading is simplified through a high-capacity flow system. Environmental protection and quality assurance features include dedicated pumps, lines and hoses for all tanks as well as overfill protection for tanks and spill containment along the rail spur,” the company said in a press release, noting that the new location replaces a previous warehouse it used in Milwaukee.

Lube-Tech operates two other distribution warehouses in Wisconsin – opening one most recently in Neenah last October – along with four others in Minnesota and Iowa. The Golden Valley, Minnesota-based company is a Mobil distributor and annually provides more than 20 million gallons of lubes, chemicals and other products and services to over 7,000 customers in the upper Midwest, a spokesperson told Lube Report. The company also boasts a lube testing lab.

“Lube-Tech’s people and infrastructure investments in Wisconsin – with new facilities in Neenah and Milwaukee – reflect doubling our geographic coverage in 2019,” the spokesperson explained. “These investments will provide the necessary infrastructure to better serve existing customers while accelerating market share growth. The underlying lubricant market growth in Wisconsin reflects that of national trends, with flat year-over-year demand. 

“That said, Lube-Tech’s Wisconsin market share is about half that of the Minnesota market. Expanding geography, investing in people and infrastructure, and broadening the product and service portfolio will enable Lube-Tech to meet the needs of more customers.”

The spokesperson noted that overall lubricant demand has dropped due to stay-at-home orders, but industrial and heavy-duty fleet lubricant volume was impacted to a much lesser degree. “As states across the country including Wisconsin begin to reopen, volume is trending toward normalized levels. Lube-Tech expects to return to prior year levels starting in the third quarter,” the spokesperson said.