Aldi Breaks Ground On New 645,000 SF Distribution Center

Discount grocery chain Aldi, which has been opening new stores in South Florida, officially broke ground last Friday on its 645,000-square-foot distribution center on 60 acres in Royal Palm Beach.
The mammoth project is expected to be completed by January 2015 and, when open, will employ 150 people, said Chris Hewitt, the vice president for Aldi who will oversee the operation.
Hewitt said with the new distribution center will come new Aldi stores. The center will deliver fresh fruit and all other goods sold to Aldi stores as far north as Vero Beach, west to Sarasota and to all stores south, he said.
Aldi’s distribution centers typically support 60 to 80 stores, Hewitt said.
Currently, Aldi has nine stores open in South Florida, with five new stores under construction in Palm Springs, Deerfield Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, where two are being built.
Hewitt said Aldi is pleased with the response to its stores from local customers. “We keep our operations simple,” he said. “We take out the hidden costs often found in other retailers.”
The German supermarket, which began opening stores in the U.S. in 1976, offers many of its own label products. A handful of employees operate each store, responsible for multiple tasks.
Aldi has been awarded $1.3 million in tax breaks over seven years based on its creation of at least 110 jobs in Royal Palm Beach, said Kelly Smallridge, president of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County. She said Palm Beach County is attracting a higher volume of warehouses and distribution centers due to the county’s increasing population and the widening of the Port of Miami.
Brian McGee, the Aldi executive in charge of the construction project, said he made a decision to “flip” the design of the distribution center so that trucks would be entering and existing from State Road 441 near other commercial businesses, instead of the residences that border the project.
A.M. King, a Charlotte, N.C.-based construction firm, is the general contractor on the project. McGee said King has built other distribution centers around the country for Aldi.
 
Source: Sun-Sentinel