McLane Company, Inc. opened its highly-automated distribution center, in the northwestern part of the Buckeye State, in Findlay, Ohio.

The 337,831-square-foot, $119 million state-of-the-art facility will use cutting-edge grocery distribution technology that includes automated storage retrieval, goods-to-person picking and voice picking. From receipt to shipment confirmation, every aspect of inventory and distribution of goods will pass through this management system.

McLane also invested $500,000 into the local infrastructure and donated $100,000 to boost workforce training at the nearby Millstream Career Center.

Announced in February of this year, the highly automated distribution center will employ a workforce of up to 425, including engineers and technical workers. The distribution center will also employ product selectors, truck loaders, forklift operators, inventory receivers, automation maintenance and monitoring, truck drivers, administration and truck maintenance.

“We could have gone a lot of different places,” said Mike Youngblood, McLane’s COO, but Findlay’s workforce, roads, water, sewers, other utilities and “town atmosphere” won them over.

McLane Co. is a leader in supply chain services providing grocery and foodservice supply chain solutions for convenience stores, mass merchants, drug stores and chain restaurants throughout the United States. McLane Co. currently has 80 distribution centers throughout the United States, delivering over 50,000 different consumer products to nearly 110,000 locations nationally.

The new distribution center will provide groceries, food services and beverages to convenience stores, drugstores, chain restaurants and other merchants in Ohio, Michigan, northern Indiana and western Pennsylvania.