In early June, FEMA announced that more than 4.3 million cubic yards of debris had thus far been removed in Alabama in the wake of the deadly tornadoes that swept through in late April, nearly half of the estimated 10 million cubic yards created by the storms. But some building materials in ‘Bama are still going up instead of being gathered up. Construction continues on Dollar General‘s 10th U.S. distribution center in Bessemer, part of the Birmingham metro area. The 1-million-sq.-ft. (92,900-sq.-m.) facility, announced in early spring, will be located on a 106-acre (43-hectare) site and will eventually employ 650 people.
“Dollar General stores have been a part of the Birmingham community for four decades,” said John Flanigan, executive vice president of global supply chain, in March, calling the location a “great strategic fit for our company’s expansion plans.”
Dollar General currently operates 498 stores in Alabama alone, among more than 9,500 located in 35 states, which in fiscal 2010 generated $13 billion in sales. In early May the company, based in Goodlettsville, Tenn., along I-65 north of Nashville, donated $100,000 to the American Red Cross to help communities devastated by the tornadoes.
In its June first-quarter earnings statement, Dollar General said it plans to open approximately 625 new stores and to remodel or relocate a total of approximately 550 stores in 2011.
A May release from Clayco, which is building the facility, said the center would serve 1,100 stores. Dollar General in June said it plans to spend approximately 25 percent of its planned 2011 capital expenditure of between $550 million and $600 million on special projects such as the new DC, which the company said would now be receiving a $90-million investment instead of the originally announced $60 million.
When Clayco announced its selection as the contractor on the project on April 19, one week before the tornadoes, it said the facility would be fast-tracked for completion by March 2012. One day after an official groundbreaking ceremony was held on June 8, a Clayco spokesperson confirmed that the project is sticking to that timetable.
“The immediate impact was a lot of the initial subcontractors were regrouping and seeing what they could do to assist in the Tuscaloosa area,” says Dave Moses, executive vice president and partner at Clayco. Other than that, he says, “The weather did not have a significant impact on our work.”
