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Grainger's 320,000 square foot distribution center in Janesville, WI has seen a flury of change over the past year and a half, and not all for the better.
In late 2014, the company sold off three equipment dealers that resulted in 200 Janesville employees transferring to Ariens Co., a move that essentially then-ended Grainger's distribution operations there.
Throughout 2015, the company outsourced 130 jobs nationwide to Panama, including 30 jobs from Janesville, located near the southern Wisconsin border.
As a result, Grainger wasn't able to make good on a tax incentive deal it made with the state of Wisconsin in 2010 to create and retain jobs between 2011 and 2015, forcing the company to return the $50,000 in state tax credits it had been awarded.
Those moves left a lot of vacant space at the Janesville facility...