Chick-fil-A to create Southeastern distribution center in North Carolina, add 160 jobs

Chick-fil-A, one of the largest privately held fast food chains in the U.S., plans to build a new distribution center to serve its Southeastern stores in Mebane, N.C.

The facility will create 160 new jobs.

North Carolina awarded the fast food company an incentive package worth around $1.8 million for the jobs. The City of Mebane and Alamance County will also add around $1 million in incentives.

The state’s Economic Investment Committee approved the award by phone on Tuesday morning.

Chick-fil-A will invest $52 million into a 182,000-square-foot facility that will be capable of cold storage and vehicle maintenance.

Previously, Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A had used third-party distributors to deliver food to its stores across the country. But the company has decided to distribute on its own, opening its first distribution center in Cartersville, Ga., earlier this year.

North Carolina was apparently competing with Ohio for the project, the state’s Commerce Department said.

The Chick-fil-A distribution center in Mebane will serve 175 stores in the Southeast beginning in 2022.

The average wage for the new jobs will be $62,429, according to Commerce.

Mebane, about 50 miles west of Raleigh, has become a magnet for distribution and logistics jobs.

In October, package delivery giant UPS said it would create 450 distribution jobs there after getting $10.7 million in incentives from the state, The News & Observer previously reported.

Walmart has a large distribution center there as well.

North Carolina’s central location on the East Coast and the presence of major highways, like Interstates 40, 95 and 85, have made it attractive for distribution centers, Commerce Secretary Tony Copeland has said in the past.

The Florida-based grocery store Publix has a huge distribution center in neighboring Guilford County that will eventually employ 1,000 people.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work. Learn more; go to bit.ly/newsinnovate

This story was originally published December 1, 2020 at 11:58 AM with the headline "Chick-fil-A to create Southeastern distribution center in North Carolina, add 160 jobs."