McLane opens sixth Florida DC

TEMPLE, Texas – McLane Company, Inc., a supply chain services company providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions, has opened a new grocery distribution centre in the Ocala International Commerce Center in Ocala, Florida.

The 400,000 square foot facility will house 165,000 square feet of dry grocery, nearly 200,000 square feet of perishables and 35,000 square feet of office and support space. The first inbound shipment arrived on February 4, 2019 and outbound deliveries will begin on March 17, 2019.

The new distribution centre will create over 400 new jobs in Marion County. By the end of the year, McLane Ocala plans to hire 316 warehouse and support workers and 120 drivers and transportation support employees.

Driver hiring began in October of 2018 in effort to allow drivers to become acclimated with McLane’s customers and the delivery process in general. The recruiting team held a three-day job fair in January at the facility and nearly 600 candidates were interviewed, resulting in 233 job offers.

This location will be McLane’s sixth DC in Florida, joining the grocery centre in Kissimmee and four foodservice centres in Lakeland, Haines City and two in Orlando and will service the quickly-expanding customer base in the North Florida region.

Construction Management Technology (CMT), the general contractor for the project, oversaw the renovations and development. The Ocala/Marion County Chamber and Economic Partnership (CEP), The County Commission and Ocala City Council were instrumental to the venture as well.

Michelle Chesnutt and Jerry Winterhalter are leading the operation with a combined 70 years of experience at McLane. Both have held numerous positions within the company. Chesnutt recently transitioned from division president at McLane Dothan in Cottonwood, Alabama, while Winterhalter was vice-president of distribution at McLane Sunwest in Goodyear, Arizona.

“We are thrilled to open our new facility in Ocala where the business community is welcoming and open to growth,” said Chesnutt, division president of the Ocala facility. “The values and work ethic of the prospective workforce is an ideal fit with McLane’s culture. McLane Ocala continues our company’s core initiative to drive customer results.”

McLane Company, Inc. is one of the largest supply chain services leaders, providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States. Through McLane Grocery and McLane Foodservice, itoperates over 80 distribution centres across the U.S. and one of the country’s largest private fleets.

The company buys, sells and delivers more than 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 110,000 locations across the U.S. In addition, McLane provides alcoholic beverage distribution through its wholly owned subsidiary, Empire Distributors, Inc. McLane is a wholly owned unit of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. and employs more than 20,000.