For Immediate Release: June 26, 2008 Contact: Eddie Owens, Director of Corporate Communications
(office: 806.791.8107; cell: 806.928.0462)
United Supermarkets to Build Ice Plant in Lubbock
(LUBBOCK, TX) - United Supermarkets soon will be offering its store guests a new product when the company's ice-making plant is complete next spring.
The 9,000-square-foot facility will be located at the Distribution Center (DC) on Martin Luther King Blvd. in east Lubbock and is scheduled to go on-line in March 2009. The plant will use purified reverse-osmosis (RO) water and will be fully automated.
"Human hands will never touch the product - even the stacking of bags onto pallets will be done by a robotic arm," said Robert Taylor, vice president of logistics for United Supermarkets, LLC.
The plant will be able to produce five million pounds of ice during peak selling periods. "We're building in 150 percent capacity in order to meet the company's projected growth needs," Taylor added.
The facility will provide a better control mechanism for the company, he explained. "Although we currently have a great partner with our ice product, this new plant will allow us to better control our costs and distribution. In addition, the quality will be second-to-none."
The company currently offers ice in seven- and 20-pound bags under its Kristal® store brand.
United will receive a $114,000 grant over a five-year period from the Lubbock Economic Development Alliance to support the 25 new jobs created at the DC and Store Support Center through the addition of the plant and other company growth efforts.
Two new Market Street stores are scheduled to open in the Dallas-Fort Worth area this year - Frisco in August and Coppell by the end of 2008. Three more new stores are also scheduled to open in 2009.
"There's a concerted effort to beef up our support and that's become apparent over the last three or four months," Taylor said.