Dot Foods Inc., the nation’s largest food redistributor, has chosen Dyersburg, Tenn., as the site of the company’s ninth distribution center. Construction of the new $24 million facility will begin this fall in the Dyersburg Industrial Park on State Highway 211 and will bring 157 new jobs to Dyersburg, according to the Mt. Sterling, Ill.-based company, which already has appointed 25-year Dot Foods veteran Tim Loyd as the new facility’s GM.
“I want to congratulate Dot Foods on their announcement of this new facility, and I thank them for their investment in Dyer County and Tennessee,” said Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam. “Our Jobs4TN strategy focuses on leveraging Tennessee’s unique assets to create and grow new jobs across the state, and (this) announcement helps us toward our goal of becoming the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high-quality jobs.”
“I am so very excited about the announcement of Dot Foods’ plan to locate a new facility in Dyersburg,” added Dyersburg Mayor John Holden. “Dot Foods, family-owned-and-operated for more than 50 years, is the nation’s first and largest food redistributor. Their core values, integrity and commitment to their customers and employees are the driving force of their success. We as a community are very fortunate to have been selected as the site of their newest operation.”
The distribution center in Dyersburg, located 75 miles from Memphis in northwest Tennessee, is scheduled to open in September 2014. A temporary office will open next month. The new facility will be 166,494 s.f. and include frozen, refrigerated and ambient storage; a 125,000-s.f. warehouse; and a 9,500-s.f. truck and tractor garage. It will service Dot Foods’ distributor customers in middle and western Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and western Kentucky.
“We are excited about the opportunity to open our newest distribution center in Dyersburg,” said John Tracy, CEO of Dot Foods. “We conduct extensive logistics analyses on where and when to open a new distribution center and we chose Dyersburg because of the community’s support, proximity to other Dot Foods locations and customers as well as its cultural fit with our company. We’re also equally excited to appoint Tim Loyd as the new facility’s general manager.”
Having spent more than 25 years with Dot Foods, Loyd most recently served as GM for the company’s distribution center in Cambridge City, Ind., a location he helped open in 2007.
“Dot Foods and Dot Transportation plan to hire 157 employees within our first three years in Dyersburg,” said Loyd. “This includes truck drivers, managers, supervisors, management trainees, warehouse workers, garage technicians, maintenance technicians, clerical employees and more. The great family atmosphere in Dyersburg, along with a quality workforce, will translate into great service for our customers in the Mid-South.”
Dot Foods also has distribution centers in Modesto, Calif.; Vidalia, Ga.; Burley, Idaho; Cambridge City, Ind.; Williamsport, Md.; Liverpool, N.Y.; Ardmore, Okla.; and its main distribution center in Mt. Sterling, Ill. The company carries 105,000 products from 650 food industry manufacturers and distributes foodservice, convenience, retail and vending food products to distributors in all 50 states.
Featured at top is a rendering of Dot Foods’ new distribution center in Dyersburg, Tenn., set to open next year.
