Facility to provide products for more than 300 McDonald’s restaurants in the Southeast

The Anderson-DuBose Company, Inc., a leading food service distribution company that serves McDonald’s and Chipotle locations across the Eastern US, is under contract to acquire a 33-acre Norfolk Southern-owned site, known as Westlake Site 34B, for the purpose of developing a 160,000-square-foot, rail-served ambient and cold-storage distribution facility that will support McDonald’s restaurants across the southeastern US. Westlake Site 34B is one of a few remaining rail-served sites located within the Norfolk Southern-owned Westlake Industrial Park in Jacksonville, Florida. The park is exclusively served by a Norfolk Southern mainline.

The project will support the creation of 109 high-quality jobs and represents a $60 million investment by Anderson-DuBose in Northwest Jacksonville. It is also expected to generate more than 160 carloads for Norfolk Southern on an annual basis and marks Anderson-DuBose’s first expansion into the Southeast. The Ohio-based distributor is the state’s largest minority-owned business and currently operates warehouses in Lordstown, Ohio, and Rochester, New York.

“It’s exciting that Anderson-DuBose has chosen Jacksonville for its new storage facility,” said Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan. “The minority-owned food storage company is making significant investments into our community with $60 million in funding for the project and a commitment to hire 109 employees with competitive pay and benefits. Anderson-DuBose is continuing a growing trend of companies expanding operations into Jacksonville because we are a fantastic place to do business.”

“At Norfolk Southern, we are proud to play a pivotal role in facilitating smart and sustainable growth opportunities for our rail network and our esteemed customers,” said VP Business Development and First and Final Mile Markets Stefan Loeb. “By leveraging our extensive real estate assets, we are not only enhancing our operational capabilities, but we are also fostering economic development in the regions we serve and lowering our national supply chain’s carbon footprint.”

Norfolk Southern helped customers avoid more than 29,497 metric tons of carbon dioxide in Florida last year. This equates to a 70 percent reduction when compared to truck emissions, and it is equal to more than 547,000 trucks removed from the highway per year.

“Norfolk Southern remains steadfast in our commitment to create value for our customers and drive growth,” said AVP Real Estate and Facility Services Cliff Garner. “This deal, where we have parlayed a strategic real estate initiative into a premiere opportunity for this key customer and catalyst for regional economic growth, represents our strategy in action.”

Anderson-DuBose has provided paper and food supplies to more than 650 McDonald’s restaurants in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, and West Virginia for more than30 years. In 2021, McDonald’s named Anderson-DuBose its US Supplier of the Year.

“Anderson-DuBose appreciates Norfolk Southern’s commitment to this joint growth opportunity for both of our companies,” said Anderson-DuBose Chief Operating Officer, Mike Boddy. “By expanding our footprint into Jacksonville, we can better meet the burgeoning demand for cold and dry food service storage in the Southeast and revolutionize distribution support operations for our valued customers.”