A German workwear company founded in 1948 has quietly built its entire American backbone in Columbus, pairing a new Arena District headquarters with a logistics hub capable of shipping 1.3 million units a year. STRAUSS, led by brothers Henning and Steffen Strauss, has now connected those two pieces into what the company describes as the center of its U.S. strategy.
The headquarters decision came first. In December 2025, STRAUSS announced it would establish its U.S. headquarters, a branded showroom and a “learning and development center” at 285 Cozzins Street in the Arena District, according to The Columbus Dispatch. One Columbus, the regional economic development group, said the project was expected to create 30 new jobs, with operations at the new headquarters slated to be built out during the first quarter of 2026, per One Columbus.
“Choosing Columbus gave us the right foundation for our growth in the U.S.,” said Henning Strauss, CEO of the company, according to that same release. He added that Columbus is where STRAUSS is building its future in the United States.
DHL Partnership Goes Live in Westerville
Six months after the headquarters announcement, STRAUSS and DHL Supply Chain flipped the switch on an integrated logistics partnership built to support the brand's expanding U.S. business-to-business operations. Go-live happened on June 24, with the first outbound package leaving the DHL hub that same day, according to a company announcement from STRAUSS. The arrangement covers warehousing, distribution and product personalization, and the joint STRAUSS-DHL project team is based at DHL's distribution center in Westerville.
The personalization piece is more hands-on than it sounds. Embroidery and print customization are being directly integrated into DHL's fulfillment operations rather than handled separately, Supply Chain Dive reported. The outlet also detailed the physical footprint behind the deal: operations are split between a DHL facility on Creekside Parkway near Columbus and another on Rohr Road in Groveport, roughly a 10-minute drive apart, according to Supply Chain Dive.
As currently set up, the hub can process up to 1.3 million units annually, with room to scale as STRAUSS grows its U.S. footprint, the company said in its announcement. The company has also said that later this year, U.S. B2B customers will be able to place customized orders through a revamped online store.
Why Columbus, Specifically
Columbus Business First, in reporting on the buildout, framed the pairing of headquarters and logistics as positioning the Columbus region as the center of STRAUSS's U.S. strategy, with the company planning to establish, operate and scale its American business from here. Deborah Scherer, executive vice president of global development at One Columbus, said the partnership shows how quickly a U.S. headquarters decision can support broader operations and growth.
Geography is part of the pitch, though outlets have framed the advantage differently. NBC4 WCMH-TV reported that Columbus sits within a one-day drive of 65% of the U.S. population, while Columbus Business First has separately characterized the region as placing nearly half of the U.S. population within a 10-hour drive. STRAUSS says that reach lets it serve customers nationwide from one central location, building infrastructure meant to support faster, more consistent service across major U.S. markets.
One Columbus has also noted that nearly one-third of its active project pipeline is represented by international companies, underscoring that STRAUSS is not an outlier in choosing the region. NBC4's reporting on the broader logistics scene pointed to other players already entrenched locally: ODW Logistics, described as central Ohio's largest family-owned business with more than 1,300 employees, handles inventory, packing and shipping for companies across the country. FST Logistics runs a hub in Grove City managing hundreds of trucks, drivers and inventory, while Spartan Logistics bases its operations in south Columbus.
Building for the Long Haul
For a company that started in 1948 as a small, family-owned operation in Germany and is now run by third-generation leaders Henning and Steffen Strauss, the Columbus buildout represents a bet on American growth concentrated in one place rather than spread thin. The company has said the partnership creates deeper business ties, additional capacity and a stronger foundation for continued investment going forward.
