Wholesale electrical distributor plans Va. expansion

Cooperative Electric Energy Utility Supply (CEEUS), a South Carolina-based electrical distributor that serves cooperatives, municipals and investor-owned utilities, plans to invest $37 million into a new 187,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in Hanover County, creating 30 jobs, Gov. Glenn Youngkin announced Thursday.

The facility will support CEEUS’s customers in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware. A wholesale electrical distributor headquartered in West Columbia, South Carolina, CEEUS supplies electric cooperatives with materials and equipment and provides services such as tool repair and a rubber goods testing facility.

The new facility, which is a shell building currently being retrofitted, will be operational in the first quarter of 2024, Jennifer Howell, CEEUS’s director of human resources and loss control, told Virginia Business. Hiring is already underway for the 30 full-time jobs, which are mostly distribution and warehousing jobs, but also sales and inventory control.

“With almost 50 years in the electric utility industry, we are confident we have the experience and distribution knowledge to build strong supply lines for the electric utility and broadband markets in Virginia, Maryland and Delaware while developing supportive relationships in our new community of Hanover County,” CEEUS President and CEO Chad Capps said in a statement. “We are excited to establish in Virginia what we have built in South Carolina.”

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership worked with Hanover County and the Greater Richmond Partnership to secure the project for Virginia, which competed with North Carolina and South Carolina for it.

“Major distributors like CEEUS are repeatedly attracted to Virginia’s strategic location, world-class infrastructure and leading position in the supply chain management industry,” Youngkin said in a statement. “We thank CEEUS for selecting the commonwealth and strengthening our burgeoning logistics sector, positioning the company for success as it expands its electrical wholesale business into the mid-Atlantic.”