Melaleuca Opens New Knox County Distribution Facility
July 26, 2010 (Knoxville, TN) – Today, Melaleuca The Wellness Company opened its new distribution facility in the Forks of the River Industrial Park in Knox County, Tennessee. The new 222,000 square foot state-of-the-art distribution center is connected to a 175,000 square foot manufacturing facility. The new building allows Melaleuca to triple shipments from its Knoxville operations to 300,000 packages per month to locations east of the Mississippi and eastern Canada. The new facility will be capable of shipping 900,000 packages per month when fully staffed.
The Knoxville expansion comes on the heels of a similar expansion of company operations at an Idaho Falls, Idaho manufacturing and distribution facility. Combined, the Idaho Falls and Knoxville expansions will meet the company’s growth demands for the next 20 years. The construction costs for both projects totaled $26 million, and the company did not incur any debt.
“Since we opened our doors in 1985, Melaleuca’s vision has been to build a business to last a lifetime,” Melaleuca CEO Frank L. VanderSloot says, “These two projects are investments to ensure that this comes true.”
Melaleuca added a product store, which is located at the front of the distribution center, to the Knoxville facility. Similar in design to a sister store in Idaho Falls, the Knoxville store brings the number of Melaleuca product stores to 55 worldwide.
“We are thrilled that Melaleuca choose to expand its operations here in the Knoxville-Oak Ridge Innovation Valley,” says Mike Edwards, president & CEO of the Knoxville Chamber. “The region has become a hot-bed of environmentally conscious businesses and Melaleuca’s expansion is evidence of the confidence these types of businesses have in the region.”
Melaleuca develops, manufactures, and sells over 350 of the world's leading wellness products for the home and family. The company carefully crafts products consumers use everyday with the highest standards of safety, health, and wellness in mind. Melaleuca’s focus has always been on environmental wellness – the company was green long before it was popular. For 25 years, Melaleuca has been leading the way in selling concentrated products and preserving nature's resources. An example is the company’s EcoSense cleaning products, which are safer for the home and use naturally derived ingredients with no chlorine bleach, ammonia, or formaldehyde.