H-E-B has opened a 50,000-square-foot e-commerce fulfillment center in Leander, Texas, which is expected to employ 150 people. The new Central Texas facility will also utilize various forms of automation to pick and carry out the grocer’s home delivery and curbside orders throughout the region, reports Progressive Grocer.
The Leander facility is H-E-B’s fifth e-commerce fulfillment center to be built since 2018. The company says it has plans to open additional facilities by the end of next year, including one in Plano that will service the Dallas-Fort Worth market.
“At H-E-B, we’re always looking for ways to offer Texans a better shopping experience and more options to choose how they shop, pay for, and receive their products,” said Kedar Patel, VP of e-commerce. “Across our business we are adopting innovative technologies that give our partners the tools they need to provide top-quality service to our customers whether they shop online or in our stores.”
During the grand opening of the Leander fulfillment center, H-E-B gave two $2,500 donations to local nonprofits, including the Leander Library Foundation and Open My World Therapeutic Riding Center. The grocer opened its second store in Leander late last year and added an H-E-B Wellness Primary Care center to its first Leander location in May.
The grocery chain is also adding frozen capabilities to its distribution facilities in Temple, Texas. The project will grow H-E-B's current facility footprint by 325,000 square feet and will aid in distribution to the company’s soon-to-open stores in the DFW Metroplex, reports Progressive Grocer.
On June 28, H-E-B announced it would donate $10 million to help build a new elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, where a shooter killed 19 children and two teachers in May.
The largest privately held employer in Texas, San Antonio-based H-E-B has more than 420 stores and 145,000 employees in Texas and Mexico.