Home Depot breaks ground on new Calgary Distribution Centre

The Home Depot Canada officially broke ground Thursday on its first Rapid Deployment Centre in Western Canada to be located in Calgary’s Dufferin North Industrial Park in the southeast.

The retailer said the centre will create more than 150 jobs for the community throughout its construction and opening.

“The new RDC will ensure the right amount of stock flows to stores across British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan,” said the company.

It said the 425,000-square-foot centre, located in the Shephard industrial area at 6325 106th Ave. S.E., will be a fast-flowing Canadian Pacific rail-served distribution centre sending products directly to 70 stores located across Western Canada.

It is being built alongside the company’s 640,000-square-foot Stocking Distribution Centre, which is also currently under construction. Earlier this year, The Home Depot Canada opened its first RDC in Vaughan, Ontario to service Central and Eastern Canada.

Bill Lennie, president of The Home Depot Canada, said the company has 70 stores in Western Canada with 27 stores in Alberta and 10 in the Calgary region.

“This is really one construction project and both facilities are co-located on the same campus,” said Lennie, adding the two centres will employ about 200 people. Lennie was in Calgary for the groundbreaking ceremony which took place at the downtown CPR Pavilion.

“This is going to take Home Depot to the forefront of supply chain and logistics distribution . . . A million square feet is pretty typical for the RDC campuses. This one is unique in the way that it’s divided. It’s the first time that we’ve co-located a Stocking Distribution Centre with a Rapid Deployment Centre. So this is really the next step, or next phase of supply chain for the Home Depot. It’s the first of its kind for us. I think it’s the first of its kind in North America.”

Lennie said the company went through extensive research for logistics, for flow of freight, for cost of operations, and the community to do business in.

“We put all those factors together and Calgary was a clear-cut decision for us as the place we wanted to locate our facility. This not only services all of our stores in Western Canada but it’s also the stopping point and distribution point for all of our direct import flow. So from B.C. to Calgary and then onto our rapid deployment centre in Toronto and to our stores as far out as the Atlantic . . . And CP being a great business partner of ours was another big piece of the decision.”

Construction has started on the RDC which is expected to be completed by December 2015. The SDC is expected to be completed a month later.

Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi said the city developed the Dufferin North Industrial Park in Calgary’s southeast for projects like this: distribution and logistics business centres that need to be close to major transportation hubs.

“We are happy to welcome Home Depot’s Rapid Deployment Centre to our Dufferin North Industrial Park because it will provide diverse employment opportunities, support economic diversification, and promote the movement of goods to benefit Calgarians and local businesses,” he said.

Keith Creel, CP’s president and chief operating officer, said the new Home Depot facilities, located beside the railway’s Intermodal Terminal in Calgary, takes advantage of CP’s ability to integrate its services with the supply chain operations of a leading retailer.

Bruce Graham, president and chief executive of Calgary Economic Development, said the new facility is a huge step forward in solidifying Calgary’s position as Western Canada’s transportation and logistics hub.

“It also represents a significant increase in Western Canadian capacity, matching retail market growth and a Home Depot commitment to Calgary as an inland port destination for the pacific gateway,” said Graham.

Source: Mario Toneguzzi - Calgary Herald.

Read the full news article here.