Dive Brief:
- H-E-B announced Thursday it has completed a land deal for nearly 500 acres in Hempstead, Texas, that will serve as the site of a planned distribution campus. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
- H-E-B said its long term plan is for the site to include “several” facilities that support its supply chain operations.
- Construction on the first part of the multi-phase project is expected to start later this year.
Dive Insight:
The upcoming distribution campus is coming at a time when the Texas grocer is ramping up its store count throughout the state.
Located south of U.S. Highway 290 and east of Highway 6, the planned distribution campus will be about an hour outside of Houston — one of the cities where H-E-B is adding more stores. So far this year, H-E-B has opened two locations in the metropolitan area around the city.
H-E-B said that the distribution campus is still in the planning phase and that it will release more details as the project develops. The grocer did not say how many facilities will be built on the campus.
“The land purchase is the first step in the development of this strategically planned campus, a project that will position H-E-B to better serve our customers well into the future,” H-E-B Chief Supply Chain Officer Carson Landsgard said in a statement.
H-E-B is also bolstering its presence in other major Texas metropolitan areas. Less than two years after opening its first store under its main banner in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, the grocery chain is working to have about two dozen stores in that area.
Along with its geographic expansion in Texas, H-E-B has been ramping up its variety of store formats, rolling out more locations under its discount banner Joe V’s Smart Shop and its rebranded convenience chain Fresh Bites.
H-E-B noted in the Thursday announcement that it is the largest privately held employer in Texas. The company has more than 435 stores in Texas and Mexico.
For the second year in a row, H-E-B kept its No. 1 spot on Dunnhumby’s annual grocer rankings.
