Officials see job opportunities in Kroger

Customer service associates expected to earn $42,500 a year

The promise of “high-paying” jobs prompted Groveland and Lake County officials to eagerly approve financial incentives potentially worth more than $3 million to lure a Kroger warehouse facility.

Exactly how much workers could expect to earn wasn’t disclosed in the March announcement trumpeting plans by the supermarket chain and British online grocery company Ocado for an “advanced robotics” customer fulfillment center that officials say will create at least 310 jobs.

But documents included with the county’s incentive package approved last month by Lake commissioners detail what employees could expect to earn. The pay will range from $42,500 — which exceeds the county’s average wage — to nearly $67,000.

A groundbreaking ceremony for the $121 million fulfillment center is set for 10 a.m. Wednesday at the site near the Christopher C. Ford Commerce Park.

“These higher wage jobs are exactly what we have been working closely with our education partners to attract,” Lake County Commission Chairwoman Leslie Campione said. “Filling these roles with a local workforce will contribute not only to the health of our economy, but the overall quality of life of our residents.”

Kroger will provide at least 250 jobs and Ocado, with the highest-paid positions, creating 60, according to the county paperwork. But there may be more — Kroger says the center is expected to bring up to 400 jobs.

For most employed at the fulfillment center, with the title customer service associate, the pay is pegged at $42,500 a year. That exceeds the requirement that the jobs pay at least $40,945 to be eligible for incentives, or 115% of the average annual wage used in the calculation.

Those Kroger positions account for 62% of the fulfillment center’s jobs. Customer service managers, representing 30% of the Kroger workforce, will make $43,750 and operations managers, the remaining 8% of the grocer’s employees, are due to earn $45,900, documents show.

Ocado, meanwhile, will employ engineers and technicians with an estimated average annual wage of $66,666, records show.

The customer fulfillment center will store and ship Kroger grocery items in the region. Kroger will invest $51 million in the fulfillment center and Ocado $70 million in “robotics and other technology.”

The new workers will staff a fulfillment center currently pegged at 336,081 square feet, or about the equivalent of two Walmart Supercenters. That consists of 318,431 square feet for the warehouse and 17,650 square feet of office space.

The project came together because of the join efforts of Groveland and the county.