ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 1, 1997 TAG: 9703030023
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: EMILY DUNNE STAFF WRITER
THE ROANOKE COUNTY facility will take over the Charleston, W.Va., center's work in mid-May.
The Kroger Co. said Friday it will close its Charleston, W.Va., warehouse and distribution center, consolidating the operation with its Roanoke County facility. The closing affects 250 workers in Charleston, some of whom may move to the Roanoke County center.
The decision is unrelated to the company's expansion of the Roanoke County center, announced in late January. Although Roanoke County offered Kroger $1.78 million in incentives to expand the distribution center here, company spokesman Archie Fralin said the consolidation decision was made based on Roanoke's location.
"The incentives were helpful in making the decision, but the major reason was the fact that Roanoke is in the center" of the territory served by Kroger's local facility, he said.
Most of the incentive money will go to widening Garman Road and realigning it so it intersects with West Main Street across from Alleghany Drive. A traffic signal also will be installed.
The $30 million expansion, to take place over five years, will create 125 jobs. Some of those jobs may be filled by workers from Charleston, Fralin said. Consolidation of the two centers won't create jobs in addition to those from the expansion. The Roanoke County center currently employs 330.
The Charleston center, built in 1926, provides meat and frozen products to 41 supermarkets in West Virginia and border towns in Ohio and Kentucky. The Roanoke County center, which currently delivers groceries and produce to those same 41 stores, will take over the delivery of meat and frozen products when the Charleston facility closes in mid-May.
"It was wasteful and inefficient to be doing some of the same things in Charleston that we were doing in Roanoke," Fralin said. The company said that increased competition from other supermarket chains was forcing it to reduce distribution costs. Fralin said he doesn't know how much the company could save from the consolidation.
The Roanoke County center serves 125 supermarkets. They include all of Kroger's stores in Virginia and North Carolina, as well some of the company's operations in Tennessee, West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky.
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