Hershey Constructing Massive New Midwest Distribution Center

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Hershey Foods Corporation (NYSE: HSY) (Hershey, Pennsylvania) is currently constructing a massive new distribution center in the Midwest.

Currently, the roof decking is going up on the 1.1 million square foot distribution center, located in the Gateway Commerce Center in Edwardsville, Illinois (PLT 1060617, PEC 09003116) under the direction of design-build contractor, The Korte Company (Highland, Illinois).

The state-of-the-art building will be designed to maintain 60 degrees throughout the 39-foot high structure with approximately 160 dock doors and a two-story 19,000 square foot office area. A special reinforced concrete floor was also designed into the project to allow high bay rack storage for the intense product load on the floor.

The $65 million project has been under construction since early May and Hershey expects partial occupancy of the new center by March of 2004, with the entire building to be completed by early Summer 2004.

Hershey is expecting the new distribution center to improve customer service and implement a low-cost supply chain.

Operations of Hershey Foods Corporation are concentrated in two divisions. Hershey Chocolate North America is the nation's leading domestic producer of chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products, as well as chocolate-related grocery products, and Hershey International oversees the corporation's international interests and exports to over 90 countries worldwide.