Loxley will be home to a new regional headquarters and distribution center for ALDI U.S., employing 200 people. The discount grocery chain plans on opening 100 new stores nationwide in 2021 and the 564,000 square foot distribution center will be key in that expansion.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivy joined ALDI and local elected officials recently for the groundbreaking ceremony and welcomed the company to Baldwin County.
“In the middle of this pandemic, as tough as it’s been on our business community, this event today just highlights the fact that Alabama’s not only open for business, it’s we’re the best place to do business,” Governor Ivy said.
After more than three years of negotiations with the Baldwin County Economic Development Alliance (BCEDA), ALDI chose to bring its regional headquarters to Loxley. The 140-acre site is in the fast-growing Loxley Industrial Park on County Road 49, north of I-10. ALDI plans on opening 24 new stores between Tallahassee and Baton Rouge in the next couple of years, with four of them in Baldwin County and thee in Mobile.
“This is definitely kind of a hole in our coverage of our store portfolio, so we’re excited,” said VP of National Real Estate for ALDI, Dan Gavin. “We have great success in Georgia and through Florida and the Carolinas and over in Texas, so it was just a natural one to grow into this market.”
It will take a little more than a year to build the center. Retail stores in Spanish Fort, Daphne, Fairhope and Foley will soon follow. Between the distribution center and the retail stores, BCEDA said the economic impact to our area will be great.
“As we grow Baldwin County…the retail sales tax, I mean we’re one of the few communities in the country right now where the retail sales tax year after year is growing at the clip that it is and that’s because of our growth and because of our job growth that’s matching our population growth,” said BCEDA Director, Lee Lawson.
ALDI is investing $100 million into building its regional headquarters here and the economy is already seeing a benefit. Local construction companies have been awarded $17 million in contracts. Hiring won’t begin until the center is nearing completion in the first quarter of 2022.