Ashley to expand distribution center
Will create 288 jobs
Powell Slaughter -- Furniture Today, October 7, 2005
ARCADIA, Wis. -- Full-line manufacturer and importer Ashley Furniture Inds. has begun a 450,000-square-foot expansion of its distribution operation, bringing its total plant and warehouse complex here to 2.2 million square feet.
The move will free up about 100,000 square feet of existing warehouse space, which Ashley will covert to upholstery production, and create 288 jobs. Ashley employs about 4,000 people in Wisconsin, including production, warehouse and transport workers.
“We got permitted on Wednesday, and we broke ground Thursday,” Chairman Ron Wanek said today. The Wisconsin winter is on the way, with attendant hold-ups in construction, but the new facility should be operational by May or June.
Construction will cost around $14.3 million, but Wanek said the total investment is closer to $30 million including new railroad spurs and additions to Ashley’s inter-modal transportation hub here.
The company negotiated for more than two years with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to gain permission to expand on 13 to 15 acres of wetlands on its property, which is bordered by the Trempealeau River. During the 1990s, Ashley had wanted to develop other wetlands, but agreed to build on less sensitive areas for its new project.
A couple of those acres will include retention ponds, so the total area available to use is around 10 acres, Wanek said.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Ashley had wanted to expand in Arcadia but environmental issues led the company to add 1,000 jobs to its Ecru, Miss., operation instead. The company has a 2 million-square-foot manufacturing and distribution complex at the Mississippi site.
As part of the agreement to develop on its wetlands in Arcadia, Ashley also will provide more than $750,000 to restore almost 30 acres of wetlands located 10 miles southeast of town.
By expanding in Arcadia, Wanek said the company would save around $6.5 million in operating costs through lower transportation and logistics expenses.
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