Sprouts Farmers Market, the grocery chain that builds its stores around the produce section, promises investors “an advantaged supply chain.”
The Denver metro area is at the heart of that push after the company opened a 135,000-square-foot distribution center in Aurora this month. Sprouts representatives say the facility means more opportunities for Colorado growers and producers to sell their items through the chain, a more sustainable supply chain network and precision-ripened fruit on local shelves.
Immediate impacts at Colorado’s 32 Sprouts locations will include expanded local and organic produce offerings including local herbs and mushrooms being available in the state for the first time, according to a press release.
“Having deeper partnerships with growers, you can’t overstate the importance of that,” Sprouts’ head of fresh merchandising Scott Neal told the Denver Post last week after celebrating the Aurora center’s opening on March 17. “It’s going to be good for our community and good for our stores.”
The Aurora center will allow Sprout’s Colorado supplier network to expand four- or fivefold and the company will be carrying well over 100 new items from those suppliers with more growth on the way, Neal said.
Sprouts has stores in 23 states, but the Aurora facility — located near the Tower Road-Interstate 70 interchange, southwest of Denver International Airport — is only the grocer’s sixth distribution center. A seventh is expected to open this summer in Florida, according to a news release.
In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic and the shocks to the supply chain it triggered, more distribution centers closer to stores means a stronger more reliable network, company officials say. Prior to the Aurora center, Colorado stores were supplied out of Glendale, Ariz. Now, Sprouts can serve all its Colorado stores as well as five in Utah and eight in New Mexico from the Denver metro area.
“Related to the pandemic the buzzword is supply chain resiliency and this creates resiliency and that back up” Joe Hurley, Sprouts vice president of supply chain, said. “Really there is nice resiliency between Aurora, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico.”
Sprouts officials said that a quarter of the chain’s sales come from produce. With that in mind, the Aurora distribution facility has nine ripening rooms designed to ensure store shelves are stocked with items that are both fresh and ready to eat. Bananas and avocados, two of the company’s best selling items, will receive special attention in Aurora
“Having the control here in Colorado allows us to either speed them up or slow them so they achieve the perfect ripeness for the store,” Hurley said of bananas specifically. “You’re getting right every single time, which is really important.”
The distribution center will is being run by Penske Logistics. As a third-party operator, Penske is in charge of the center’s staff of more than 70 workers, Hurley said.
With much shorter truck routes between the center and stores, Sprouts estimates the Aurora center will eliminate between 4.5 and 5 million miles of over-the-road truck trips per year. With a dedicated fleet of trucks, trailers that go out carrying produce and other goods come back carrying cardboard and other recyclable items further improving sustainability, Hurley said.
A stronger distribution network means more flexibility for expansion and Sprouts is planning for that in Colorado and beyond.
“We’re going to open 20 new stores next year. There is going to be one here in Colorado,” said Neal, referencing the forthcoming Green Valley Ranch store that will be only a few miles from the Aurora facility. “We already want to increase our density in Colorado and the (distribution center) will be part of the strategy.”
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March 22, 2021 at 09:00PM
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Sprouts Farmers Market opens distribution center in Aurora in quest to offer peak produce - The Denver Post
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