Southern Wine & Spirits Toasts New Distribution Center in Florida

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated Houston, Texas). Privately held Southern Wine & Spirits of America Incorporated (Miami, Florida), the single largest distributor of wine, spirits, beer, and other non-alcoholic beverages in the United States, has started construction on a new $16 million storage and distribution center in Lakeland, Florida.

The company held a lavish groundbreaking and toasting ceremony in mid-March of 2005, and construction is proceeding with the pouring of the foundation for the new center with a 653,000-square-foot footprint.

Plans call for construction of a large temperature-controlled dry storage area with a 100,000-square-foot mezzanine area, a 62,500-square-foot cold room for wine storage, and 20,000 square feet of office space, along with multiple shipping and receiving docks amid hi-bay storage racking and automated material handling systems and equipment.

The center will be home to about 120 delivery vehicles and have the capacity to store over 1.6 million cases of wines and spirits.

Southern selected Clayco Construction Incorporated (Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois) as the prime contractor and Clayco's wholly-owned subsidiary, Forum Studio Incorporated (Saint Louis, Missouri) provided the architecture for the structure.

Construction on the 83-acre site in Lakeland is scheduled to continue through late 2005 and will initially employ about 350 people when completed. The project was designed to allow a future addition of 400,000 square feet, which would bring the site to over one million square feet, as additional storage space is required.

Founded in 1968, Southern Wine & Spirits of America is the number one U.S. distributor of wine and spirits and has locations in twelve states. In addition to importing and distributing wine and spirits, it sells imported brews, such as Grolsch and Steinlager; cigars, such as Don Diego and Montecristo, and non-alcoholic beverages, including Clamato and Rose's Lime Juice.

Florida leads all states in the Southeast Region for 2005 planned project spending, with $177 million planned to begin construction this year. Click on the image at right to view a chart showing the breakdown of industrial project spending for the Southeast Region by state. Click here for more information on the Food & Beverage Industry.

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