No U.S. grocery retailer is opening stores faster than Aldi. The German-owned Batavia, IL based discounter has plans to more than 225 new stores this year with a focus on Florida, the Northeast, Midwest and West.
With that rate of expansion, support services will be needed and late last month, Aldi announced that it will build a two-story 1.1 million square foot automated distribution center near New Castle, DE which is slated to open in 2030. When completed, it will become the biggest distribution center in the First State.
The Delaware DC, located in the Blue Diamond Business Park adjacent to Route 13, will become Aldi’s sixth depot in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast – the others are located in Center Valley, PA; Saxonburg, PA; Frederick, MD; Tully, NY; and South Windsor, CT.
The new robotics-assisted facility is estimated to cost $560 million and will feature spaces for 184 tractor-trailers and employ approximately 225 full-time associates. Another 500-700 workers will be hired temporarily to build the large distribution center.
The new warehouse would be capable of serving 150 stores in the region. It will be the largest investment Aldi has ever made for a distribution center in its 50-year history in the U.S. The company currently operates 26 DCs nationally.
Late last year, Aldi announced it would invest $9 billion to open 800 new locations nationally by 2028. Among those new locations will be about 220 former Winn-Dixie and Harveys Supermarkets acquired from Southeastern Grocers last year. Approximately 100 of those stores, primarily located in Florida, will open by the end of 2025.
