WinCo Foods will begin shipping from its newest distribution center at 7502 W. Durango St. in Phoenix, Ariz., on Wednesday, May 14. The center, which includes more than 900,000 s.f. of warehouse space under one roof, will initially service 19 WinCo Foods stores located in Arizona, Southern Nevada and Southern California. The facility will open with approximately 185 employees, most of whom have been hired from the greater Phoenix market. The 19 stores represent a little more than half of the facility’s capacity. When fully operational and at capacity the center is expected to employ approximately 320 employees.
The distribution center will be managed by Don Kellogg, a 15-year WinCo Foods employee, who has worked at all of WinCo’s distribution facilities and transfers to Phoenix from Boise, Idaho, where he has managed WinCo’s Boise distribution center for the last several years. Kellogg reveals that WinCo has had a positive response to the company’s recruitment efforts and that the center will open with a quality, motivated workforce who will be shipping approximately 500,000 cases each week as it begins operations this month. Receiving the initial inventory has already begun and, when filled, the facility is capable of holding about 75,000 pallets, or roughly 3,000 full truckloads of goods.
The center has approximately 500,000 s.f. of dry grocery space and more than 360,000 s.f. of perishable space, which is divided into several modules maintained at appropriate temperatures and humidity levels for frozen items, fresh produce, meat and dairy products. It also includes six large pressurized banana ripening rooms to assure that stores and customers get their bananas just the way they want them, according to the Boise-based company. The remainder of the center is comprised of offices and outbuildings. There is preplanned space at the site to expand by up to 50 percent in the future.
An invitation-only open house will be held from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, May 4. WinCo officials will be on site to conduct tours and to answer questions about the company and its plans for expansion in the greater Phoenix and other markets.
