Distribution Center

WILLIAMSPORT - Dot Foods Inc., a redistributor of food and nonfood products, has completed its warehouse expansion plans at its Williamsport distribution center. The company anticipates hiring 100 additional employees over the next four years, according to Brian Duffield, general manager of the Williamsport distribution center. Currently, the warehouse employs 330 people. Many of those employees are Class A CDL drivers or warehouse material handlers. The warehouse was built in 1994, and the latest major expansion is its second, adding 63,000 square feet of dry storage and 40,000 square feet of frozen storage space.

WILLIAMSPORT - Dot Foods Inc. is planning to add as many as 100 jobs over the next four years as part of a $10 million expansion of its distribution center in Williamsport. The Mt. Sterling, Ill., company, with locations throughout the country, delivers food service and retail products to distributors in each of the 50 states, according to a written statement. The food redistributor will add 63,000 square feet of dry storage capacity and 40,000 square feet of frozen storage capacity, increasing the total square footage at the 16301 Elliott Parkway facility to 257,000 square feet.

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Berkeley County officials say it's too early to confirm that a Tennessee hardware company will build a new distribution center in the Eastern Panhandle, despite a company annoucement that the plant is coming. The plant would employ at least 200 people. Talks are under way about possible sites for a 500,000-square-foot distribution center for Orgill Inc., but the negotiations still "could go sour," said Berkeley County Commissioner Robert L. Burkhart. After Berkeley County's failed attempt to lure a Frito Lay plant to the community in 1996, officials should avoid becoming overconfident about economic development projects, said Commission President D. Wayne Dunham.

By BRYN MICKLE / Staff Writer, Martinsburg photo: RIC DUGAN / staff photographer MARTINSBURG, W.Va. - Wielding a silver shovel, West Virginia Gov. Cecil Underwood helped Berkeley County break ground Monday for a new hardware distribution center expected to bring 235 jobs to the area by next spring. [cont. from news page ] About 85 people gathered in a cow pasture on Tabler Station Road where Tennessee-based Orgill Inc. will build a 500,000-square-foot distribution center on 39 acres across from the Guardian Fiberglass plant.

julieg@herald-mail.com Home Depot will create at least 231 full-time jobs over the next two years and will invest $12.7 million in the former TruServ warehouse that the home improvement company will use as a distribution center, a county economic development official said Monday. The distribution center in Hunter's Green Business Center began receiving products this month and will start shipping in February, said Atlanta-based Home Depot's spokeswoman Karen Haggerty.

World Kitchen lays off 63 employees By STACEY DANZUSO / Staff Writer, Chambersburg World Kitchen Inc. has announced it is laying off 63 employees, the latest in a string of Franklin County businesses to scale back their work forces. Most of the hourly employees volunteered for the layoffs, said Dave Lanzillo, director of corporate communications at World Kitchen's New York headquarters. He said he doesn't expect the layoffs to be permanent. "This is part of our normal business operations and the business cycle," he said.

WILLIAMSPORT - An expansion of DOT Foods Inc. in Williamsport is expected to bring about 100 jobs to the area over the next four years. The positions will be mostly for truck drivers and warehouse staff, general manager Brian Duffield said. The Mt. Sterling, Ill., company has locations throughout the country and delivers food service and retail products to its network of distributors. Duffield said the growth of the distribution center on Elliott Parkway has led to the expansion, which will bring the overall facility to more than 275,000 square feet.

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - The AB&C Group's construction of a major distribution center in Winchester, Va., is not expected to have an impact on the 600 jobs at the company's Charles Town facility, a company official said. AB&C Group announced plans earlier this week to build a 77,000-square-foot facility in the Stonewall Industrial Park in Winchester. The new facility will employ about 100 workers, AB&C Group Chief Operating Officer David P. Himes said Wednesday from the company's headquarters in McLean, Va. The company is a distributor for mail-order catalog companies, Internet businesses and nonprofit organizations.

The Hagerstown City Council gave preliminary approval to lending and possibly granting $45,000 to Lowe's Home Centers, which is building a distribution center along Wesel Boulevard. The council would have to give official approval at its voting session toward the end of the month. City Economic Development Director Deborah Everhart said the $45,000 loan would become a grant if Lowe's meets certain conditions. Lowe's has also made a $150,000 loan-to-grant agreement with a state-run lending program.

By CLYDE FORD Staff Writer, Charles Town CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. - West Virginia flood victims as well as those at homeless and domestic violence shelters will receive donated clothing from a national mail order company with a distribution center in Jefferson County. Norm Thompson, the national mail-order business with a corporate distribution center in Kearneysville, W.Va., is giving $800,000 worth of new clothes and shoes to the West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service, company officials said.