SPRINGFIELD, MA - As companies continue to grow their business and footprint, new facilities are necessary to continue providing the quality service customers and shoppers expect. For Big Y Foods, that new facility is taking shape through its newest Fresh & Local Distribution Center. The new $40 million facility is slated to fully open in early 2021.
“It gives us great pride and honor to be able to help these young businesses, these young farmers, these young producers to grow their business and become successful,” said Charlie D’Amour, President and CEO of Big Y. “That’s part of the role we can play in the community. I would encourage folks out there who want to explore an opportunity to work with us to contact us through bigy.com.”
Big Y’s Fresh & Local Distribution Center provides local farmers and food producers with an efficient, one-stop location that saves them time and money related to delivering to individual stores. According to the press release, it also has state-of-the-art technology and temperature controls to help Big Y maintain and deliver at the peak of freshness to its customers.
Through Big Y’s Fresh & Local Distribution Center, 70 farmers supply Big Y’s stores in Massachusetts and Connecticut with 1,200 types of native fruits and vegetables each year, which accounts for more than 9,000 acres of farmland in the region. For many farmers, this partnership helps them grow their business and preserve farmland and open space in area communities.
“Big Y has been so instrumental in the local community,” said John Burney of Meadowbrook Farm in East Longmeadow, Massachusetts. “They have enabled me to continue to grow my business and put 99 percent of my profits back into the farm to keep providing customers with locally grown produce.”
More than 3,000 different products from local food producers can be found at a typical Big Y supermarket. Big Y actively searches for new craft food artisans to bring into its stores and can provide them with support for marketing and packaging, help with barcodes, or even advice on business matters like insurance.
“One of my earliest memories was going around with my uncle to the farms in the summer months and buying peppers and tomatoes and corn,” said D’Amour. “You could just feel the camaraderie and the connection. I’m proud to say that that connection is still with us today.”
The new Fresh & Local Distribution center has close to 425,000-square-feet of space and operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is located adjacent to Big Y headquarters at 2145 Roosevelt Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts.
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