Home Depot is closing a Braselton deployment center, eliminating 300 jobs, at the same time it expects to add about the same number of jobs at a new fulfillment center in Georgia.
The Braselton rapid deployment center will close by the end of the year, Home Depot spokesman Steve Holmes said.
The first of the Atlanta home improvement company's 19 distribution centers to be built nationwide, the Braselton center was not mechanized when it opened in 2008. The company's other mechanized deployment centers -- which are used to replenish stores -- are exceeding Home Depot's expectations, Holmes said, and the company decided it could operate without the Braselton center. Home Depot said it would aid affected employees in finding other positions in the company.
At the same time, Home Depot announced it was closing a distribution center in Baton Rouge, La., where 225 people work in for Home Depot's online division and in support of a wholesale business. Some support positions will be centralized in Georgia, but Holmes said he did not know how many.
Additionally, the company said it hopes to open a fulfillment distribution center -- used to fulfill online orders -- somewhere in Georgia to keep up with the growth of Home Depot's online business. That center will employ 300 people, and is expected to open in about a year and a half at the earliest.
Holmes said the new Georgia center would be 1 million square feet, but that Home Depot had not yet signed a lease, and could not say where the distribution center would be located. He said, though, that the decision to move the distribution center to Georgia was made because its location better aligns with the density of the company's online customer base.
Home Depot is also continuing to hire people in support of its online business and expects to add 100 jobs in that division this year. A customer support call center in Kennesaw is expected to open with 400 jobs later this year; it will expand to 700 positions by 2015.
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