Target supports food category with specialized distribution center
Target Corp. has a new type of food logistics facility.
The discount giant recently launched its newest and largest food distribution center, in Thornton, Colo. The $387 million, 529,000-sq.-ft., temperature-controlled facility will employ more than 380 workers and service 129 stores across 11 states.
According to Target, the facility will help replenish stores up to two days faster than before, enabling fresher products and more consistently stocked shelves. The retailer recently announced it is about to start its largest food and beverage transition in more than a decade, which will accelerate newness in the category by 50%.
The building also represents Target’s first food distribution center with consolidation capabilities. It serves as a connector between vendors and the retailer’s other food distribution centers with a dedicated section to combine separate shipments from different vendors into trucks that then go fully loaded to a designated destination.
Target expects this consolidation to reduce the volume and cost of transportation across its network and streamlines arrivals to its other facilities, resulting in a more efficient unload process for workers.
"This facility represents so much more than just a new building," said Amy Probst, senior VP of food and beverage supply chain, trade and transportation, Target. "This is an investment in the future of food and beverages at Target. We’re advancing and expanding our fresh supply chain capabilities so that guests can rely on us for all their high-quality meals, snacks and seasonal treats."
Target expands sortation center model
Target’s new food consolidation distribution hub is not the only next-gen logistics facility concept it is rolling out. The retailer also recently opened its first-ever "receive center," located in Houston.
[READ MORE: Target opens its first-ever 'receive center']
The $265 million facility intakes products directly from its global vendors and holds the product until it’s needed elsewhere, replenishing inventory in response to store and customer demand. The 1.2 million-sq.-ft. hub will service six regional distribution centers and one flow center, helping replenish the inventory that then goes to stores.
The receive center and consolidation center mark Target’s first new supply chain facility concept since it piloted the concept of its sortation center model — which streamlines the process of fulfilling and delivering online orders, removing the sorting process from the backroom of stores — in April 2021 in its Minneapolis hometown.
Target now operates at least 12 sortation centers across the U.S. as part of its larger "stores as hubs" strategy which enables it to fulfill online orders from local stores.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, Target operates more than 2,000 stores across the United States.
