Orgill Inc. moving world headquarters to Collierville

Collierville landed its fourth headquarters company Thursday when hardware wholesaler Orgill Inc. announced it would relocate from Germantown.

Orgill will employ about 380 workers in a 100,000-square-foot building scheduled to go up by 2018 on Houston Levee south of Winchester.

Orgill, one of the oldest and largest private businesses in Tennessee, would join Helena Chemical, JuicePLUS and MCR Safety in locating its head office in the Memphis suburb, which also is home to FedEx Corp.’s 2,400-employee tech center.

The move follows Collierville efforts to shed its status as a bedroom community tied to Memphis and develop into an upscale residential, office and retail center with a population of 87,000 by 2040, up from about 50,000 currently.

“They looked out down the road to where development is going to be occurring in five, 10, 15 years, to where the new office developments will be happening and they saw it would happen in this area,” said Collierville economic development director John Duncan.

Orgill’s office currently is at 3742 Tyndale near Forest Hill-Irene and Winchester in Germantown, a short distance west of the new location. While the company “enjoyed calling Germantown home for the last 13 years,” Orgill chairman Ron Beal said, an expiring lease and a need for more space “to accommodate the rapid growth we’ve experienced” prompted the decision.

Beal added the company considered sites closer to its Retails Concepts Center in Olive Branch, but Orgill officials eventually decided to remain in Shelby County.
Company officials will spend $15 million on the new building and expect to begin construction in 2016 and complete the project in late 2017.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam’s office announced the project Thursday, saying it would create 115 new jobs. Orgill currently employs about 265 at the Germantown headquarters.

Collierville Mayor Stan Joyner expressed excitement about the new corporate resident.

“Every day, Collierville is making strides of becoming a place where world class businesses bring their dreams and build their businesses,” Joyner said in a statement released by state officials. “Orgill brings a level of national prestige and recognition that the Collierville community will welcome and embrace.”

Orgill, founded in 1847 in Memphis, employs about 2,000 worldwide and reports annual sales surpass $1.7 billion. The company supplies retailers with more than 75,000 items such as power tools, hardware, lumber, paint, building materials and electrical products. It also distributes housewares, home furnishings, camping gear, and garden products.

Last year, the company deployed a computerized real estate system to aid retailers in selecting locations. This year the company announced plans to expand its warehouse at Sikeston, Missouri, to more 1 million square feet. Orgill’s six distribution centers in Georgia, Missouri, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Ontario supply retailers in North America and export to customers in more than 60 countries.