Aug 2, 2011 9:56 AM

Delhaize America and Food Lion plan to expand the company’s distribution center in Dunn NC, adding approximately 54,000 square feet to increase storage space for refrigerated and frozen foods.

Cathy Green Burns, Food Lion president, said, “Today’s announcement reinforces our commitment to North Carolina and enables us to continue to serve our customers in the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states. We look forward to completing this project and establishing a greater presence in North Carolina.”

The expanded refrigerated and frozen section at the facility will provide additional storage for more than 4,000 dairy, meat, and frozen food products.

“The expansion of this facility will further support storage capacity for Food Lion grocery stores,” said Gerry Greenleaf, vice-president of distribution and transportation for Delhaize America. “After the devastating tornado that struck North Carolina this spring, we evaluated opportunities to further enhance this facility as part of our rebuilding efforts. As our business grows and storage capacity needs increase, this was the right opportunity to expand this distribution center.”

First opened in 1987, the distribution center in Dunn services 264 Food Lion stores primarily in North Carolina. The facility has more than 700 associates and after the expansion will be approximately 1.3 million square feet. On average, the distribution facility ships more than 1.4 million cases of products each week and houses 12,800 items. After being struck by a tornado in spring 2011, the company has resumed full grocery operations and is working diligently on reconstruction of the refrigerated and frozen foods to resume normal operations. The company expects to open the facility’s expanded space in early 2012.

Delhaize America is a supermarket operator with more than 1,600 stores in 16 states in the eastern United States. It operates under the banners Bloom, Bottom Dollar Food, Food Lion, Harveys, Hannaford Supermarkets, Reid’s, and Sweetbay.

The Food Lion family of supermarkets, based in Salisbury NC, operates more than 1,100 supermarkets, either directly or through affiliated entities, under the names of Food Lion, Harveys, or Reid’s. Food Lion employs about 62,500 associates in 11 Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states.