Gardening-Supply Distribution Center to Open in Visalia
Jul. 26–VISALIA — An Indiana wholesale supplier of gardening products is expanding to the West Coast, opening a distribution center in the Visalia industrial park.
Bloomington Wholesale Gardening Supply will occupy 35,000 square feet near the southwest corner of Plaza Drive and Riggin Avenue, said Dale Thompson, sales director for BWGS West.
The company will open its West Coast distribution center on Aug. 22. The center eventually will employ about 15 workers, Thompson said.
Although its parent company, Worms Way, has a handful of locations nationwide, the Visalia warehouse will be the first for Bloomington Wholesale outside of Bloomington, Ind.
Customer demand prompted the move, said Claude Eastridge, general manager of Bloomington Wholesale and Worms Way. “Our customer base was strong enough out there that it was a natural choice,” he said.
Eastridge would not disclose annual revenues. He said Worms Way has about 90 employees.
The company chose Visalia because of its central location, the available distribution space and the friendliness extended by city officials, Eastridge said.
The company supplies gardening retailers with such products as lighting for indoor gardens, organic fertilizers and hydroponic systems, which is a way to grow plants without soil.
The distribution center will serve its West Coast customers, Thompson said.
Tower Garden Supply, which has locations in Fresno and Visalia, is a customer that plans to take advantage of Bloomington Wholesale’s new distribution center.
When the company opened more than six years ago, Tower Garden Supply used Bloomington Wholesale to make its first stocking order, said Daniel Wilson, who owns Tower Garden Supply with his wife Cheryl.
“Ironically, here they come to our area,” he said.
Wilson said he hasn’t ordered that much from Bloomington Wholesale because of the shipping costs from Indiana to California. But with the new distribution center in Visalia, “we’re more likely to buy many things from them.”
Wilson, who opened the Visalia store a year and a half ago, said having a local supplier that has the same goals — such as promoting natural and organic gardening — is good news.
“That’s why we’re open arms as far as Bloomington is concerned,” he said.
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