United Natural Foods to open distribution center in Manchester, Pennsylvania

United Natural Foods (UNFI), an American grocery wholesaler, said that it is constructing a new 1.3 million sft leased distribution center in Manchester, Pennsylvania.

Situated at 1025 Locust Point Road, the property is the next in the line of warehousing for grocery distribution and will enable the company to grow its customers in the region, said United Natural Foods.

The temperature-controlled facility is currently under construction and likely to be finished over the next 15 months.

This new facility will add to the range of distribution centers of the grocery wholesaler across Pennsylvania. When completed, it will give United Natural Foods a larger network capacity as well as enhanced capability to efficiently offer its full service and product offerings and continue to support the expansion of customers in the mid-Atlantic region.

United Natural Foods said that the addition of the Manchester distribution center is an important investment for the company’s associates. This is because the location will provide the best overall experience that is highlighted by a new lifestyle center that aims to improve retention and overall engagement through a more contemporary and more welcoming workplace for associates, claimed the grocery wholesaler.

The Manchester facility is the most recent in a series of acquisitions executed through Scout Cold Logistics, which is an affiliate of AEW Capital Management. All the acquired assets focus on the distribution and production of food across the US, said United Natural Foods.

Erin Horvath — United Natural Foods Chief Operating Officer said: “Our York facility, located less than 15 minutes away, has felt the impact of both new and existing customer growth we’ve experienced in this region over the last 12-18 months.

“Leasing this facility allows us to best utilize our capital and manage Company resources all while delivering on our transformation program, to enhance our distribution network by enabling our multi-echelon re-distribution strategy to effectively support our customer growth.

“Similar to several other UNFI facilities, this new distribution center will implement technology and automation solutions designed to enable greater network capacity, scalability, and profitability.”