Walmart Opening KY Ecommerce Fulfillment Center
Walmart Inc. is investing $41 million and creating 400 full-time jobs at a new facility in Kentucky’s Bullitt County dedicated to fulfilling online orders from Walmart.com and Walmart subsidiary Jet.com.
The company will lease a 720,000-square-foot building in the Velocity 65 trade center on Velocity Way off I-65. As well as the full-time permanent workers, the facility will eventually employ several hundred temporary workers, including seasonal employees, for as many as 900 jobs. The center is slated to open later in the fall.
“We are excited to welcome Walmart and Jet.com’s distribution facility to Bullitt County and the commonwealth,” said Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin. “This is a major new venture for the company that will bring significant investment and hundreds of jobs to the region. It is further confirmation that Kentucky is the established leader for logistics and distribution in the United States.”
“This new facility will soon be serving even more Walmart.com and Jet.com customers with fast shipping in two days or less, and we’re thrilled we found a home for it in Bullitt County,” noted Nate Faust, SVP of supply chain, Walmart ecommerce U.S. “We look forward to opening for business and to a long relationship with the people of Kentucky and Shepherdsville.”
According to Shepherdsville Mayor Curtis Hockenberry, in whose community the facility will operate: “The project will have a huge impact on the economy and provide jobs that will improve the lives of [local] residents. This is another indication that this is a great place to do business.”
To stimulate investment and job growth in the community, the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority (KEDFA) has preliminarily approved Walmart for tax incentives up to $3 million through the Kentucky Business Investment program. The performance-based incentive enables the company to retain a portion of its investment over the agreement term, through corporate income tax credits and wage assessments, by meeting job and investment targets.
Walmart operates more than 11,200 stores under 55 banners in 27 countries, and ecommerce websites. The Bentonville, Ark.-based mega-retailer is No. 1 on Progressive Grocer’s 2018 Super 50 list of the top grocers in the United States.