ORLANDO, FL - Florida will see a sizable investment from retail giant Walmart in the next year: the company just announced upwards of $450 million in investments throughout the state.
“This year has been an exciting one for Walmart in Florida, and we’ll build on that momentum as we continue to focus on how to better serve our customers through innovation and investments so they can save both time and money,” said Elise Vasquez-Warner, Vice President and Regional General Manager in North Florida. “We’ve had a sharp focus on making our store experience second to none and our customers are telling us that our plan is working. Our team is energized and we’re looking forward to exceeding our customer’s expectations for what a great Walmart shopping experience can be like.”
One notable thing on the to-do list is the opening of a state-of-the-art Supercenter in Lake Nona with some of the newest shopping innovations in retail, which the retailer said will be tested with customers and evaluated for potential implementation in other locations across the country.
Plans for fiscal 2017-18, which spans Feb. 1, 2017, to Jan. 31, 2018, also include:
- Opening nine new stores across the state, creating more than 800 jobs statewide
- Executing a multi-million-dollar capital investment plan by remodeling more than 40 locations across the state
- An approximate investment of more than $300 million with two buildings spanning more than 2.2-million-sq.-ft.
- Hiring more than 3,225 Floridians by opening more than 20 stores/clubs across the state
Walmart also confirmed plans to break ground later this year on a new distribution center for perishable goods in the city of Cocoa, according to a press release, with plans to invest more than $145 million in the 640,000-sq.-ft. facility and to employ more than 450 associates once fully operational. This is in addition to a new 150-acre e-commerce distribution center in Davenport, which has recently been certified as fully operational and will have a grand opening in the months to come.
With bigger plans to add to the strides it made last year in the state, part of the $2.7 billion it invested across the U.S., AndNowUKnow will continue to keep an eye out for further developments on this and other retail moves as they are announced.
