Sobeys distribution centre closing, moving to Headingley

250 Inkster employees to keep jobs; building to be sold

A 380,000-square-foot warehouse and distribution centre for Sobeys West is set to open in Headingley by fall 2008, say the grocery chain’s president of operations and Reeve Wilf Taillieu.

The centre will employ upwards of 350 people – at least 100 more people than its current facility on Inkster Boulevard – which could mean employment for local residents.

It’s the first step in a new industrial development area for the municipality and will neighbour a site purchased by Manitoba Corrections for a $25-million women’s prison, slated for 2009.

The new Sobeys facility will be 120,000 square feet larger than their current distribution centre.

Garry Kerr, Sobeys West president of operations, said he wasn’t able to put a price tag on the facility, as it’s just gone out for tender – but he predicts it will cost “somewhere north of $40 million.”

Kerr said the project was the result of a series of studies to determine the best location for a centre to service Sobeys grocery stores in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and northwestern Ontario.

“We started this whole process about three years ago,” said Kerr.

“This is not something you can just go jumping into, so we did our due diligence and we decided it would be better to build our distribution centre within the Manitoba area, close to the city of Winnipeg.”

Kerr and Sobeys vice-president of distribution and logistics Kevin Lynch said the Headingley site was chosen to replace the current Inkster centre due to its proximity to the Trans-Canada Highway, as well as the Perimeter, which will add to the ease of delivering food to Sobeys stores across the city.

“We love it,” he said. “When we looked at the land and location, it’s just an ideal situation. As our business continues to grow, we had been starting to outgrow our distribution centre in Winnipeg.”

Kerr said he hopes the 250 employees at the Inkster site will move along with the company to the new facility.

Sobeys’ plan is to sell the Inkster facility once it moves its operations to Headingley. Sobeys communications director Mike Lupien said although a buyer has yet to be identified, there has been interest from companies Sobeys has worked with in the past.

Kerr said he is even considering setting up a charter bus service to ease the commute for the current employees.

“We’ll make whatever arrangements we have to – if we need a charter service, a bus service...the people in our current Winnipeg distribution facility are great people and we don’t want to lose any of them in the transition,” he said.

Reeve Taillieu said the Sobeys project is “a go” from the municipality’s standpoint – in fact, construction has already begun on Nicola Road, a new street that will link the industrial park to service roads and the No. 1 Highway.

Taillieu said Sobeys is financially solid and will require very little in municipal services.

“We, at the RM, were pleased that Sobeys was interested in relocating and that Headingley was an option,” said Taillieu, adding that once the Sobeys reps expressed their interest, Headingley did its best to convince them of the site’s merits.

“When the real estate agent told us the (Sobeys) VPs were coming through town, we made sure our doors were open...when they got here, we locked the doors behind them.”

According to Taillieu, there are no hurdles Sobeys will have to face before breaking ground and beginning construction this fall. He said the municipality will have to make improvements to the intersection at previously underused Cameron Street closer to the site’s completion, but aside from that, the project is ready to move ahead.

“It’s just really great news for Headingley,” he said.