CINCINNATI – The Kroger Co. announced an investment of $17 million toward the expansion of the company’s distribution center in Florence, Kentucky.

The facility will support higher production capacity needed to fulfill the demands of the Restock Kroger initiative, in which the retailer aims to redefine the customer experience through data-driven decision making, personalization, pricing and shelf space optimization.

The Florence distribution facility, a 674,000-sq.-ft. ambient distribution center on Mt. Zion Road, serves the company’s direct-to-store distribution centers across the eastern half of the United States, as well as Kroger’s growing e-commerce and digital business. 

“This significant investment in the distribution facility and our associates will allow us to more efficiently reach our customers and help to deliver on new ways to shop with Kroger, as we redefine the grocery customer experience through Restock Kroger,” said Frank Bruni, Kroger’s vice president of supply chain and logistics. “We have long appreciated the support from Boone County and the state of Kentucky and look forward to growing together.”

The project received a Kentucky Business Investment (KBI) incentive of up to $1 million over 10 years and is linked to investment, job creation and retention and average hourly wage targets. The facility, which opened in October 2017, currently employs 80 workers. The expansion is expected to create 250 new jobs. Kroger currently employs more than 21,000 workers in Kentucky.

“Kroger continues to find ways to innovate and improve the customer grocery experience,” Boone County Judge-Executive Gary Moore said. “The Mt. Zion facility will be a hub for Kroger’s e-commerce and digital innovations and we are very pleased that jobs created by this expansion will contribute to not only the livelihood of our region, but also the redefinition of the grocery industry.”

In June, Kroger announced an autonomous delivery service pilot project with Nuro and the expansion of the company’s digital team into a new Digital HQ, which will open in downtown Cincinnati.