Orange County Partnership - News

UNFI Speaking Points for Public Hearing

United Natural Foods Inc. (UNFI)

UNFI came to Orange County last year with an aggressive search for the right location to expand their northeast operations.
This project is important to Orange County, NY (and the Town of Montgomery in particular) for the following reasons:

• UNFI is a leading distributor of natural, organic, specialty products

• The Organic food industry is the fastest growing food and beverage industry in the country and it’s one of Orange Counties targeted industry clusters. We know this company is going to be successful and fast growing.

• UNFI serves customers nationwide in the U.S. & Canada with 28 distribution centers & more than 7.6 million s/f of warehouse space.

• UNFI has a long standing commitment to the environment, sustainability and the communities they serve.

• The Montgomery building will be LEED Gold certified making it the FIRST LEED GOLD CERTIFIED INDUSTRIAL BUILDING IN NYS!

• UNFI will create 223 permanent new jobs in the first year and will add nearly 100 more in the next few years. The company is a great place to work and has very little employee turnover with an average wage of $40,000 annually. This is a VERY difficult job market and the competition is fierce when states are competing for such projects.

• UNFI will seek to hire US Veterans.

• The company will invest approximately $60M in the construction of 525,000 s/f building.

• Multiplier: the average wage will be in the $40,000 range. By the end of the first five years we expect to have 316 new jobs with a payroll of $12.6-million annually. As people pay their bills locally that will translate into an estimated new influx of over $35,000,000 into the Orange County economy every year.

• During the worst of times for the school districts and municipalities, UNFI came at the right time to the right community as they will contribute significantly to the school and local community’s tax base.

• UNFI will create 100’s of construction jobs