CLINTON TOWNSHIP: Although the walls are up, it still will be almost a year before the new Aldi warehouse opens its doors in the Victory Road Business Park.
"Things are progressing very well now," said Tom Behtz, vice president of the company's Hinckley Division in northeastern Ohio. "We lost about 36 work days since March due to the weather."
Behtz said the massive warehouse is "dried in," meaning the roof, walls and windows are finished. Therefore, crews will be able to work through the winter on the inside.
"We also had time to get some concrete poured outside, so it won't be such a mess," he said. However, a lot of landscaping and outdoor work still is needed outside, he said.
An engineer with Olsen Engineering and Associates recently presented the company's plan to reforest about 1.25 acres along Victory Road, as well as plans for extensive landscaping close to the building.
The 400,000-square-foot building -- which amounts to nearly 10 acres under roof -- hopefully will open next fall, Behtz said.
Although large, Behtz said the warehouse is comparable to Aldi's two other U.S. warehouses in Michigan and Illinois.
The building will serve the 18 Aldi discount grocery stores in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and southwestern New York that currently are served by Behtz' warehouse in Ohio.
The only Aldi grocery store in the Valley is in Plum; other local stores are in Butler, Greensburg and Shaler.
He said by the time the Victory Road facility opens there will be about 25 stores served by the warehouse, which will have the capacity to serve at least 50 stores.
"That gives you an idea of what we plan to do in the region," Behtz said.
Aldi, founded in Germany 40 years ago, operates stores in Europe, Australia and the U.S.
The company has grown to about 650 U.S. stores in the Midwest, South and East since opening the first store in Iowa in 1976.
Called a "limited assortment store," Aldi offers 700 products from private labels, as opposed to about 25,000 products found in regular supermarkets, according to the company's Web site.
Initially, about 50 employees will work at the warehouse, not including truck drivers and other peripheral workers, Behtz said.
"We like to be able to know all of the employees," Behtz said. "So we'll keep it small."
Also, most of the Victory Road employees will work a first-shift type schedule six days a week, Behtz said. Many will arrive around 5 a.m. and work until early afternoon.
He said the warehouse will not be open 24 hours a day.
The facility will receive shipments from all over the country, including from several suppliers in Pennsylvania.
