When E. & J. Gallo Winery announced its plans and began construction last June for a massive East Coast hub in Chester County, company leaders targeted October 2022 to open the first piece of the operation. The nation’s largest winemaker held a ceremony to celebrate the fact it achieved that goal despite supply-chain challenges stemming from the Covid-19 outbreak.
Gallo welcomed a number of state and local leaders, including S.C. Gov. Henry McMaster, to mark the opening of its regional distribution center in Fort Lawn. The distribution operation occupies just a piece of a large, 1.5 million-square-foot building that is under construction to accommodate the first phase of Gallo’s East Coast operation.
Erich Kaepp, Gallo’s vice president of eastern operations, said it was “a push up to the end” to prepare to launch the distribution operation, which officially opened on Oct. 3.
“Having achieved that milestone further demonstrates that choosing South Carolina was the correct decision,” CEO Ernest Gallo said of the company staying on schedule despite pandemic-related challenges. “Although we are here to celebrate the opening of this facility, it is just the first of many anticipated phases.”
Gallo pledged a $423 million investment and the creation of nearly 500 jobs for the first phase of the project that includes the regional distribution center, a production facility, warehousing, bottling, canning and an import and export hub.
The company plans to open the next piece of the operation in February, when it is targeting the opening of its first production line in Fort Lawn. That line will serve the company’s High Noon brand. Kaepp said he is still eyeing May and August of next year, respectively, to open the second and third production lines at the first phase.
The Modesto, California-based Gallo has acquired well over 600 acres at the intersection of S.C. Highway 9 and U.S. Highway 21 for the East Coast hub. The first portion of Gallo’s Chester County operations is expected to take up around 300 acres, leaving significant room for growth beyond the initial $423 million commitment.
In total, the master-planned site could have as many as five major phases. A construction timetable for the following phases is still being finalized. Upon full buildout of the site, Gallo’s total investment is expected to surpass $1 billion and create over 1,000 jobs over the course of several decades.
Kaepp said Gallo has hired just shy of 80 workers thus far and will have another cohort of around 30 employees coming in November. The hiring process has been constant in recent months and will continue to move quickly, Kaepp said.
“We have much, much bigger plans for South Carolina in the future,” Gallo’s Rob Donoho said on Friday. “In the future, we envision having many more buildings similar to this over the decades to come. We see tremendous growth opportunities in South Carolina.”
To read more about this project, which has been called “transformative” for Chester County, and the efforts it took to secure the deal, click here to be directed to the Charlotte Business Journal.
