SAN ANTONIO -- Officials of Valero Energy Corp. on Thursday marked the grand opening of the company's first retail distribution center by announcing that they have invested $20 million in the project, created more than 200 new jobs and donated $30,000 worth of food and other merchandise to the San Antonio Food Bank.
The 132,000-sq.-ft. distribution center, which has 2.6 million cubic feet of storage space, will supply more than 600 of Valero's Diamond Shamrock Corner Stores located across Texas with retail merchandise. The center will be managed and [image-nocss] operated by Core-Mark International Inc.
To officially open the facility, Valero chairman and CEO Bill Greehey and Core-Mark president and CEO Mike Walsh rolled into the ceremony driving one of the new 28-ft. tractor trailers, emblazoned with a colorful, billboard-sized image of merchandise from Valero's Diamond Shamrock Corner Stores.
Soon you're going to be seeing trucks like this one all over the Texas highways delivering products to more than 600 Diamond Shamrock stores throughout the state, said Greehey after driving the truck up to the podium. But the one Mike and I drove in is extra special because it's loaded with 16,000 items for the Food Bank. It will make its inaugural run and deliver this food to the San Antonio Food Bank in just a little while.
When the truck arrives at the food bank, Valero Volunteers will unload enough coffee to make 50,000 cups; as well as 7,500 packaged beverages; 3,500 bottles of Corner Store Fresh Choices water; 960 Corner Store Fresh Choices sandwiches; and a wide range of other merchandise. The Food Bank, in turn, will distribute the donated merchandise to various community centers, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and human service agencies.
We are excited to have built our very first distribution center here and to have invested $20 million in our community. And the 200 jobs the distribution center created were certainly well-received. We had more than 5,000 applications. And, we were able to hire truly outstanding new employees to run this top-notch facility, Greehey said.
More than 30 million unitsranging from fresh milk, coffee and beverages to candy, snacks and household itemsare expected to be shipped from the facility each year. On an annual basis, the center expects to distribute 32 million candy bars; more than 1.2 million gallons of Gatorade; and 500 miles of hot dogs.
The state-of-the-art center includes office space; frozen, refrigerated and dry-storage space; and a chilled dock for receiving and shipping perishable products. It also includes the latest computerized warehouse management system and modern material-handling equipment, and uses radio frequency technology and a computerized pick-to-light selection system to assist employees in selecting merchandise.
The company's fleet of trucks is expected to travel 2 million miles per year, a distance equal to 80 trips around the globe or four trips to the moon and back. And, these trucks will ship 100 million pounds of products annually.
During a typical day at the center, RDC employees process several hundred store orders for approximately 100,000 units of merchandise, said Walsh. The orders are filled that night from our inventory; loaded in stop-order sequence on our fleet of more than 30 tri-temperature trailers; and then delivered to the stores. The process runs smoothly and efficiently and guarantees on-time delivery.
Greehey further explained the benefits to Valero's retail business. With this new center, we will have more flexibility and control over the supply chain supporting our retail business, and will be better able to supply our stores with the right products at the right time, he said.
San Antonio-based Valero owns and operates 15 refineries throughout the United States, Canada and the Caribbean and more than 4,700 retail and wholesale branded outlets in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean under various brand names including Diamond Shamrock, Shamrock, Ultramar, Valero and Beacon.
Core-Mark is one of the largest broad-line, full-service wholesale distributors of packaged consumer products to the convenience retail industry in North America. It provides distribution and logistics services as well as marketing programs to more than 18,000 retail locations in 37 states and five Canadian provinces through 24 distribution centers. Core-Mark services traditional convenience retailers, grocers, mass merchandisers, drug, liquor and specialty stores, and other stores that carry consumer packaged goods.
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