NORTH WHITEHALL TWP. — United Natural Foods Inc. plans to close its Lehigh Valley distribution center and eliminate more than 700 jobs.
Layoffs will begin Aug. 12 and continue through Oct. 18, according to a notice the company filed with the state Department of Labor. It says 716 jobs will be affected.
United Natural Foods is an organic food wholesaler and the primary distributor for Whole Foods.
It has 11,000 suppliers and delivers to 30,000 locations in North America, according to the company website.
The distribution center in the North Valley Trade Center at 4255 E. Independence Ave. in Schnecksville gained approval by North Whitehall Township supervisors in 2021.
It includes two buildings and a total of about 1.3 million square feet.
Township Manager Randy Cope said officials were beginning to weigh the impact of the closure and layoffs.
"This news is obviously very fresh," he said. "We’ll have to dig into the numbers to see what sort of impact it might have on taxes, revenue and things of that nature. We’ll adjust and plan accordingly."
The closure comes following United Natural Foods' termination of a wholesale grocery contract with Key Food Stores.
The contract began in 2021 and will come to an end on or around Sept. 20, according to a report by Yahoo Finance.
Customers serviced out of the Lehigh Valley distribution site will be serviced from other United Natural Foods facilities, according to the company.
This is a developing story that will be updated.
