ST. LOUIS -- Save-A-Lot here, a division of Supervalu, Minneapolis, will be consolidating storage of all its dry grocery and perishables into a new distribution facility in Winchester, Ky., in early 1998.
The 396,000-square-foot facility, currently under construction, will service 100-plus stores, mostly in Kentucky and surrounding states.
"We were using a lot of outside storage, primarily in perishables, and this facility is a consolidation of outside storage facilities into one larger facility," said Bill Owen, vice president of distribution at Save-A-Lot.
When the warehouse is complete, Save-A-Lot will no longer need to use outside storage, Owen added.
The new facility consists of a 384,000-square-foot area for storage of both perishables and dry goods, according to a source familiar with the project. This area has clear-height ceilings of 28 feet and 32 feet, as well as 17 refrigerated loading docks and 58 dry loading docks.
Approximately 78,000 square feet of the warehouse are refrigerated, equally divided between a freezer and a cooler.
The freezer will be engineered to maintain a constant temperature of minus 10 degrees. The freezer and cooler each have a dock area, where temperatures of 35 degrees and 55 degrees, respectively, will be maintained, according to the source.
A separate 288,000-square-foot dry grocery area, serviced by a separate dock system, is also part of the facility, the source said.
One new aspect of this facility is the use of concrete panels, including insulated concrete panels in the freezer and the cooler, according to a source. Traditionally, insulated metal panels are used for freezers but they can rust, said another source, noting that concrete panels do not rust.
Metal panels also run the risk of greater damage from warehouse operations, such as an operator running a pallet into the panel. Concrete panels are very durable in these situations.
