Sephora — a company that sells makeup, skin-care, hair and bath products — is opening a distribution center in Salt Lake City this year that is expected to create more than 500 jobs.

The company said in a news release Monday that as its business continues to grow, the new distribution center will serve Sephora's retail stores and e-commerce clients. Sephora, with U.S. headquarters in San Francisco, is a division of French company Mo�t Hennessy Louis Vuitton, based in Paris.

Sephora does not have any retail stores in Utah, but its products are sold inside a J.C. Penny in Riverdale. The Utah distribution center will serve clients west of the Mississippi River. They previously received products from a distribution center in Maryland.

The warehouse, scheduled to be finished in the second half of 2008, will be 320,000 square feet. Almost all of the employees will be locally hired.