{"id":164765,"date":"2026-04-13T20:13:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164765\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T20:13:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T20:13:12","slug":"east-penn-manufacturing-opens-new-berks-distribution-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/164765\/","title":{"rendered":"East Penn Manufacturing opens new Berks distribution center"},"content":{"rendered":"

East Penn Manufacturing and The Wolfson Group reached a major milestone on Friday. The day marked the official opening of a 930,000-square-foot distribution center \u2014 built by Wolfson and occupied by East Penn \u2014 at Schaeffer Road and Route 222 in Maidencreek Township.<\/p>\n

The Berks County-based battery manufacturer is leasing the building and will handle all of its fulfillment operations for outbound shipments from there.<\/p>\n

A ribbon-cutting event April 10 included East Penn and Wolfson representatives, as well as elected officials at the local, county, state and federal levels.<\/p>\n

\"FromFrom left, Kathleen Miller, director of the project management office at East Penn Manufacturing; Adonis Illiano, director of distribution operations for East Penn; Christy Weeber, president of East Penn; and U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean cut the ribbon at the East Penn Manufacturing Corporate Distribution Center, 8697 Allentown Pike, Maidencreek Township, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/READING EAGLE)<\/p>\n

The Wolfson Group began construction on the warehouse in May 2025 and completed the project in about 10\u00bd months, according to Steve Wolfson, CEO of the Wolfson Group, a Montgomery County-based developer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility supports critical logistics needs for East Penn Manufacturing while reinforcing the importance of investing in infrastructure that drives American manufacturing forward,\u201d David Wolfson, director of operations at the Wolfson Group, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The project has been a three-year journey for East Penn, although the company had been brainstorming and working toward it for a bit longer, said Christy Weeber, East Penn president.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis facility truly represents an important step forward for East Penn and allows us to bring many synergies together and create more consistency in how we serve our customers,\u201d Weeber said during her remarks.<\/p>\n

\"ChristyChristy Weeber, president of East Penn Manufacturing, speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the East Penn Manufacturing Corporate Distribution Center, 8697 Allentown Pike, Maidencreek Township, on Friday, April 10, 2026. Steve Wolfson, president of the Wolfson Group, is at left. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n

She added that the company was aware of Wolfson\u2019s Maidencreek Township project and reached out about availability.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been a long time coming, but it has turned out wonderfully,\u201d she said in an interview with MediaNews Group. \u201cWe\u2019re really looking forward to all of the efficiencies that I think will come as we consolidate two of our other locations into this facility.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two locations that will relocate operations to the new facility are the company\u2019s Topton and Alburtis warehouses. Employees from those locations will transfer to the new facility.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is now going to handle all of our distributions out of the county,\u201d Weeber said, adding that the new distribution center will give the company room for growth, \u201cwhich is what we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

East Penn is still doing work to get the facility up and running. Adonis Illiano, director of DC operations for East Penn, said when fully operational, about 650 employees will work in the building.<\/p>\n

He said the company plans to begin shipping product from the facility starting this week, a small volume of product, with a gradual increase over the next four to six months.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this same time we are reducing transportation miles, which supports ongoing efforts to minimize our environmental impact,\u201d Weeber said.<\/p>\n

She added that the facility is an important investment for the company\u2019s employees as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited to provide a modern work space that brings together our teams and creates hopefully new efficiencies of opportunity,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new East Penn Manufacturing Corporate Distribution Center, 8697 Allentown Pike, Maidencreek Township, was officially opened on Friday, April 10, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)
\nThe Building<\/p>\n

The new distribution center features 170 loading docks and a ceiling height of 42 to 45 feet, according to Steve Wolfson.<\/p>\n

In the east-to-west direction, he said, the building is 600 feet wide and 1,600 feet long in the north-to-south direction.<\/p>\n

To give some perspective, Wolfson added that \u201cwithout the end-zone of a football field, we could fit 19.4 football fields inside the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never been part of a building this size,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe new East Penn Manufacturing Corporate Distribution Center, 8697 Allentown Pike, Maidencreek Township, was officially opened on Friday, April 10, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)<\/p>\n

As part of the celebration, the Wolfson Group announced charitable contributions to several local organizations, including Trinity Bible Fellowship Food Pantry, Maidencreek Township Park and Recreation, Fleetwood Area Library and Blandon Fire Company Relief.<\/p>\n

The Wolfson Group purchased the Maidencreek Township property in 2004, the company said.<\/p>\n

Its proposal for the warehouse project was met with opposition from a group of residents in a hearing that lasted more than one year. Conditional approval for the project was given by township supervisors in December 2023. Construction began in May 2025.<\/p>\n

\"SteveSteve Wolfson, CEO of the Wolfson Group, speaks during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the East Penn Manufacturing Corporate Distribution Center, 8697 Allentown Pike, Maidencreek Township, on Friday, April 10, 2026. (BILL UHRICH\/MEDIANEWS GROUP)
\nAdditional Expansion<\/p>\n

Just days before the new Berks facility opened, East Penn and the Temple, Texas, Economic Development Corp. announced an expansion of East Penn\u2019s manufacturing facility there.<\/p>\n

East Penn\u2019s Texas facility plays a key role in the company\u2019s battery manufacturing process, completing the final stage of AGM battery production. Batteries manufactured in Pennsylvania are shipped to Temple, according to a release.<\/p>\n

East Penn employs approximately 350 people at its Texas facility. The expansion is expected to add 48 full-time jobs. An additional 175,000 square feet will be added to the current 393,000-square-foot facility. The project has a targeted completion in fall 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Penn Manufacturing and The Wolfson Group reached a major milestone on Friday. The day marked the official…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":164766,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,60,182,21027,28,128,130,129,1081,706],"class_list":["post-164765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-business","tag-local-news","tag-maidencreek-township","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-real-estate","tag-top-stories-reg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164765"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164765\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/164766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}