Food & Beverage is becoming even more of a reason why busy families choose Target. Guests are seeing more newness and wellness in the assortment than ever before and are browsing remodeled stores with more space dedicated to fresh and frozen products, pantry staples, and trending snacks and beverages for the family. And behind all that is more investment in our food supply chain to ensure continued capacity to support this continued growth.
Case in point: our newest and largest food distribution center that recently launched in Thornton, Colorado. This temperature-controlled facility will employ over 380 team members and service 129 stores across 11 states, helping replenish these locations up to two days faster than before. That means fresher products and more consistently stocked shelves for guests across the region, along with more jobs and investment in the local community.
This facility represents so much more than just a new building. This is an investment in the future of food and beverages at Target. We’re advancing and expanding our fresh supply chain capabilities so that guests can rely on us for all their high-quality meals, snacks and seasonal treats.
Strengthening our supply chain and communities
Thornton Distribution Center Site Director Erik H. reflects on the facility’s role in strengthening Colorado communities.
Thornton's really a critical node. We expect from farm to shelf that we'll be able to reduce our total lead time within our supply chain by one to two days.
And when we think about a fresh business, there's nothing more important to the guest experience than delivering freshness.
The opening of the Thornton Food Distribution Center in Colorado is going to be able to provide a greater experience for our guests through fresher food and supporting food availability in totality.
More locally, our site team has been really focused on ingraining ourselves into the community that we're joining. The Thornton Food DC is creating 350 jobs with competitive pay, benefits, and access to educational programs that supports long-term career growth.
Beyond that, the facility itself continues to invest in Colorado communities through millions in donations, food bank partnerships, and volunteer hours, along with local initiatives like the Bullseye Builds, where we supported a local elementary school by creating sensory rooms, updating the teachers' lounges, and enhancing the playground.
Additionally, we supported an organization called The Right Step, which is focused on educating horseback riding for emotionally and intellectually disabled individuals, where we constructed ADA accessible ramps, and supported the development of their stables. The Right Step has a current wait list of over 300 individuals and through the efforts that we made, we're able to expand their capacity to be able to take on more individuals within their program.
Delivering for guests and the business
As Target’s food and beverage business continues to rapidly grow, we’re building out a fresh supply chain network across the country that allows us to position products closer to guests as well as be more flexible and efficient in how we move inventory. Not only is Thornton our ninth food distribution center at Target — and our fourth in just three years — it’s also our first one with consolidation capabilities.
Making Target the food destination
Amy Probst shares how the Thornton Distribution Center improves the guest experience.
When I think about what food means to Target, the more we invest in the supply chain, it gives our guests even more reason to choose Target's Food and Beverage as their go-to.
Not just something guests love to shop at Target, but really the reason why they choose Target in the first place. Thornton is an investment upstream so that we can deliver that excitement, that delight at store level.
As our ninth distribution center and the first in our network with consolidation capabilities, it improves how food moves across our supply chain and supports almost 130 stores throughout the region. That means fresher inventory, stronger in-stock reliability, expanded assortment opportunities, and faster replenishment.
All helping us deliver a better experience for guests while supporting continued growth in food and beverage.
The building serves as a connector between vendors and our other food distribution centers with a dedicated section to combine separate shipments from different vendors into trucks that then go fully loaded to a designated destination. This consolidation reduces the volume and cost of transportation across our network and streamlines arrivals to our other facilities, resulting in a more efficient unload process for our team members.
Square feet of temperature-controlled warehouse
Target team members
Invested in Thornton FDC
Stores served
Strengthening team and community
Our new food distribution center marks a $367 million investment into a state with meaningful Target history and presence. It was 60 years ago that we opened our first Target store outside Minnesota in Colorado, and since then, our statewide footprint has grown to 48 stores, three supply chain facilities and over 9,300 team members.
And our commitments keep going:
- In May, we held one of our new Bullseye Builds program events with Trevista at Horace Mann Elementary School in Denver to enhance outdoor learning spaces and refresh student wellness rooms. This is a continuation of the 15,500 hours our team volunteered in Colorado communities last year.
- In July, we’re opening a new store in Firestone, Colorado, and remodeling four across the state this year to better serve community needs. (In 2027, we’re opening two more local stores.)
- In August, our distribution center in Pueblo, Colorado, will celebrate 40 years of replenishing 60 stores across seven states.
Our path forward — built on investment and community
As Target continues our next chapter of growth, investments like this new food distribution center are helping us elevate the guest experience and strengthen the communities in which we operate. It’s a winning recipe for the future — inspire our guests with fresh and full shelves and create new jobs and economic development in the process.
