E. & J. Gallo Winery opens first piece of planned $1B complex in region

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 Friday to celebrate the fact it achieved that goal despite supply-chain challenges stemming from the Covid-19 outbreak.

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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 earlier in the week.

“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.”

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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.

Read more and check out photos here.

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