Speaking of the site selection process that ended with the choice of Jonesville, S.C., James Crupper, distribution architecture and engineering specialist with design-build firm James N. Gray Co., said, "This is not a beauty pageant. This is 'Survivor.'

Anthony Roden, Dollar General’s senior director of distribution projects and operations, and his team have to manage distribution capacity to keep up with a company store growth rate of 1.5 stores per day.

     All three speakers emphasized the importance of both teamwork and agility in the execution of their duties in supporting the retailer’s expansion agenda. Teamwork was key on all levels — in terms of the three speakers’ own organizations as they worked to locate a new distribution center in the southeast U.S. for Dollar General and in the context of their working with each other to achieve the desired result. Agility is another way of saying the panelists all had to be comfortable with change, because the site search at times was something of a moving target. Just when the location analysis had determined the center would be located in one of two states, for example, a third state was added to the mix at the direction of the client, related Sweeney. New analysis was now required, but the deadline remained the same.

     The search was successful, and Dollar General’s expansion timeline expectations were met — in fact a new search is now on with the same team in charge. -Mark Arend