Why Hershey's Ice Cream is moving its distribution facility from Pensacola to Santa Rosa

One of Santa Rosa County's industrial parks is adding another high-profile tenant: Hershey's Ice Cream.

The Pennsylvania-based ice cream brand will be relocating its distribution facility in Pensacola to the Northwest Florida Industrial Park off of Interstate 10. Josiah Fry, a branch manager with the company, said the larger and newer facility in Santa Rosa County will help accommodate Hershey's needs.

"This will be the latest and greatest in our branch roster throughout the company. Our most recent besides (this one) has been in Atlanta," Fry said. "And it's just a much bigger facility so we can grow."

Other industrial developments in SRC:Santa Rosa County industrial park gets $16M Triumph funding commitment, 450 jobs to come

More ice cream news! Here's the scoop on Pensacola's newest ice cream shop, Crazy Cat Creamery

The facility is set to be constructed in an 8-acre plot at the industrial park. The company has submitted a bid of about $300,000 for the land.

Fry said it will take about three years for the facility to be up and running, and they will have a minimum of 20 employees.

Fry said this facility acts as a regional center and will help deliver product throughout the Florida Panhandle and into Alabama and Mississippi. He added that a large component within the facility are the freezers that hold ice cream for months at a time.

"So, we have a massive freezer to try to keep months' worth of supply so that we don't have any supply-chain issues," Fry said. "A lot of our competitors have supply chain issues, and they run out of a lot of product. And so that's one of the biggest things we pride ourselves on is always being stocked."

At the Northwest Florida Industrial Park, Hershey's joins the likes of Damian's, a fellow ice cream brand, and Project Unstoppable, a distribution project from an unnamed Fortune 500 company.

Shannon Ogletree, director of Santa Rosa County's Economic Development Office, said it was ironic for two ice cream distributors to house facilities in the same park, but said that was also an indicator it is a good location. He added that this park in particular is meant for distribution facilities and mentioned he expects it to continue to become a hub in that regard.

"I think that location is really getting ready to explode," Ogletree said, pointing out the location's proximity to populations in Mobile, Alabama, and other Panhandle communities in places like Bay County.

Fry echoed the sentiment, saying Santa Rosa County, and this park in particular, offered the company everything it needed.

"I mean, Santa Rosa County, it has more availability as far as industrial parks right off of the interstate. So, it's a suitable site for us, and they just had everything ready to go. It was a really smooth transition," Fry said. "Whereas we couldn't find that same kind of operation, at least not in the time frame that we that we wanted, looking at other counties."

Fry said the company wanted to stay close to the Pensacola location, and looked at sites in Escambia County, and even Baldwin County in Alabama, but went with Santa Rosa County.

"The park is really at the epicenter of transportation and distribution. Any company that wants to hit basically 2 million people within a 90-minute drive. This is an ideal spot," Ogletree said.