A major pharmacy retail chain has opened a distribution center in South Whitehall Township that is expected to create about 185 new jobs.
Walgreens cut the ribbon Thursday on its new micro-fulfillment center at 4741 Chapmans Road. It will serve about 650 stores in the region, including 55 in Pennsylvania and nine in the Lehigh Valley. The company said it will process about 29 million prescriptions annually.
The micro-fulfillment centers use robotic technology to fill prescriptions and allow pharmacists at retail locations to spend more time with customers, Walgreens said.
“We’re honored to expand our footprint in [South Whitehall],” said Jon Joplin, senior vice president of pharmacy automation and services at Walgreens. “This new micro-fulfillment center will bring roughly 185 new jobs to the area while helping our pharmacists spend less time filling prescriptions and more time doing what they do best: providing personalized care to patients.”
Walgreens has more than a dozen micro-fulfillment centers nationwide that support more than 5,000 stores and fill more than 3.5 million prescriptions weekly.
About 40% of a store’s total prescription volume is managed by these centers, the company said.