Governor John Kasich joined federal, state and local officials in Waverly on Monday to listen to an announcement by Rural King about the opening of a distribution center and retail store that will bring 160 jobs to the area.
According to the company, the Pike County-facility plans to open in summer 2015 and service 30 of the company’s eastern-most stores in the United States. The Pike County facility will be the companies second distribution center, with the first in Mattoon, Ill.
“What a great opportunity for Rural King, Waverly and the state of Ohio. We’re very excited about coming to the area. Some of our executive team came down and saw the facility for the first time they eyes were open wide about the possibilities,” said Alex Melvin, Rural King CEO.
Melvin said once the Waverly facility is open it will be able to keep 30 stores stocked.
Melvin said Rural King is in a growth spurt.
“We opened nine stores last year, this year we’ll open eight stores and next year we plan to open between eight and ten stores,” he said. “This facility is 930,000, this can take us to (stocking) 80 stores or more. I’m hoping over the next five years we can get this to the point where it’s really rolling.”
He said the retail location is anticipated to open in late March 2015. With the distribution center fully operational by June 1, 2015.
“With the distribution center we’ll add about 120 jobs, with 40 retail jobs,” Melvin said. “This facility will take up Ohio Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and touch New York. Logistically why we chose this location is because we can touch a good portion of the United States. Logistically it made a lot of since to our company.”
On Monday, Ohio Tax Credit Authority granted, R.K. Administrative Services, LLC, City of Waverly (Pike Co.) expects to create 120 full-time positions, generating $3.2 million in new annual payroll as a result of the company’s new location project in the City of Waverly (Pike Co.). Rural King Supply provides a retail product line of livestock feed, farm equipment, agricultural parts, lawn mowers and items for the house. The TCA approved a 50 percent, seven-year Job Creation Tax Credit for this project.
“Rural King’s decision to choose Ohio over several other states for this expansion is welcome news for Pike County and the120 workers who will begin to fill the former Masco facility here,” said John Minor, JobsOhio’s President and Chief Investment Officer in a released statement. “We appreciate the efforts of our partners at Appalachian Partnership for Economic Growth in attracting this popular company to Ohio, and look forward to working closely with Rural King as it grows in Waverly.”
Kasich also praised the company for their decision to locate in southern Ohio.
“We had this meeting with Alex (Melvin) and we got good news 160 jobs to start. He said if things keep going there will be more jobs. We’ll take the 160 jobs and we’ll celebrate that,” Kasich said.
For more information about Rural King visit www.ruralking.com.
From Portsmouth Daily Times | October 27, 2014
By Wayne Allen, tallen@civitasmedia.com
