Food Lion’s parent company to bring 500 jobs to Piedmont-Triad

BURLINGTON, N.C. — One of the world’s largest food retail groups, Ahold Delhaize USA, which operates Food Lion, will build its newest distribution center along the Alamance-Guilford county line. It’s considered to be the largest capital investment in Burlington’s history, officials said.

“I think everyone likes roads,” said Marvin Price, executive vice president of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce. “I think everyone loves a well-funded school system and a police department or EMS teams that have the right kind of equipment, and you don’t have that unless you have the tax revenue to pay for it. A company coming in of this magnitude, gainfully being able to employ the citizens of that community, that just is a win.”

The company’s $860-million investment could potentially create more than 500 jobs, company officials said. The average wage is expected to be more than $60,000 per year. Initially, 120 jobs will come to Guilford County.

“They will come in and they will start that process of hiring and beginning to develop that culture, if you will, for that facility,” said Teross Young, vice president of Ahold Delhaize USA. “We’ll have supervisors who start to come in and then will start to bring in people who will automatically start to understand kind of how this facility will be run long term.”

Guilford County Commissioners, along with the Burlington City Council, held separate public hearings on “Project Titan” Wednesday afternoon. Council approved $21.5 million worth of incentives to close the deal.

“The one thing that is most important is that, as the population continues to grow, jobs and quality of life and places to live are going to be equally important,” said Burlington Mayor James Butler. “This is just a cog of that wheel, and we’re very fortunate.”

The new state-of-the-art, one million square foot warehouse will be located in the Rock Creek area near Lake McIntosh off Interstate 40. Companies including Duke Energy, PrePac and Zink Imaging already have facilities nearby. 

“Did you know that Guilford County is the place where I-40 and 85 merges together,” Price said. “When you think about that from a company standpoint, going all the way to California or going through I-85, going all the way to Virginia to New York, that’s an opportunity where it merges together. Commerce starts essentially in Guilford County, North Carolina.”

Construction of the project is expected to start next year and be completed in 2029.