WHEELING, W.Va. -- Sledd Co., a growing regional convenience store distributor, recently held a groundbreaking for its new 83,000-square-foot facility on the company's Elm Grove, W.Va., property, reported The Intelligencer.
The $13 million expansion project will provide additional space for freezers, coolers and dry storage warehouse space to better accommodate c-store customers, said the report.
Sledd is a $450 million distributor that serves c-stores, cigarette and tobacco stores and other wholesale customers in six states from its local facility in Elm Grove. The company left a 15,000-square-foot, three-story building in Wheeling, W.Va., in 1985 to move out to the current site which will expand to nearly 200,000 square feet in total after the construction of the new warehouse.
"Over a number of years, we've expanded to fill up the building and we've added on to the building several times and we reached a point where physically we were constrained by the hillside behind us," Rob Sincavich, president of Sledd Co., told the newspaper "So to continue to grow the business while we were at capacity, we had to look at either relocating or trying to do something in the adjacent area and our preference was really to try to stay here in the community that we've grown up in."
In addition to building expansions, the company also announced the need for 60 new employees to operate the new facility over a three-year period, the report said. Sledd currently employs 225 people.
"We hope to add 60 new jobs in the relatively near future, but hopefully that's just the beginning of it. Hopefully we can expand upon that," Sincavich said. "We're glad to have a good job base. We're glad to try to be an example for other businesses that they shouldn't be afraid to expand in Wheeling."
Sledd also announced plans to remodel its interior corporate offices and add new office space and more visibility for visiting customers during 2013.
The company plans to move into the new space by January, the report added. There are also plans to implement upgrades for the current warehouse to improve the operational efficiency and working environment for the employees.
"We're looking forward to being in Wheeling and Elm Grove for a long, long time to come," Randy Emanuelson, vice president of Sledd Co., told the paper. "This expansion really sets us up for that for at least the next 20 years."
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