Dive Brief:
- Ahold Delhaize USA has made an $860 million investment to build a distribution center in Burlington, North Carolina, in an effort to grow its supply chain network, according to a Wednesday announcement.
- The new facility will add over 1 million square feet of distribution infrastructure for fresh and frozen grocery items, which will primarily support the company’s Food Lion stores.
- This Food Lion-focused distribution center comes as the banner continues to be Ahold Delhaize USA’s golden goose, achieving its 51st consecutive quarter of positive comp-store sales growth in August.
Dive Insight:
Construction on the distribution center, which will rely on automated supply chain technology, is slated to begin in 2026, and operations are expected to commence in 2029.
The new distribution center will allow Ahold Delhaize’s stateside distribution and transportation companies to “expand their capacity to support Food Lion’s growth in the state, along with bringing new jobs,” Ahold Delhaize USA CEO JJ Fleeman said in a statement.
This new site is part of the company’s larger Growing Together strategy, Ahold Delhaize noted in a separate announcement, and the latest step in the company’s self-distribution drive that began six years ago.
The incoming Burlington, North Carolina, facility, which marks Ahold Delhaize’s fourth in the state, will create over 500 new jobs, per the announcement. The company’s other North Carolina sites are located in Salisbury, Butner and Dunn.
Food Lion, which has been a top-performing banner for Ahold Delhaize in recent years, currently has over 1,100 stores across 10 Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic states. In addition to its ongoing comp-store sales growth, the grocery chain led online sales growth stateside for Ahold Delhaize in its second quarter. Ahold Delhaize reached e-commerce profitability on a fully allocated basis during the first half of 2025, the company reported in August as part of its second-quarter earnings presentation.
