Martinsville-Henry County Economic Development Corporation

New J.G. Edelen facility opens in Patriot Centre

Nov 16, 2007
By SHAWN HOPKINS - Bulletin Staff Writer. As J.G. Edelen Co. dedicated a more than 28,000 square foot, $2 million distribution center Thursday in the Patriot Centre, spectators were told the building is at least in part a monument to how the company has adapted to the Internet age.

Jay Edelen, company vice president and co-owner, said the 84-year-old Baltimore-based company still sells cabinet knobs and pulls and other hardware to what is left of the U.S. furniture industry and appreciates its support.

But since 2003, the company also has been selling directly to consumers through its Web site, coolknobsandpulls.com, and that business “really took off” and has nowhere to go but up, he said. The company’s goal is to be the best at selling cabinet and drawer hardware and similar products online, he said.

What started as a Web site that Edelen’s wife, Masha, created at home in her free time has grown into a busy portal for selling the company’s products to everyone from housewives to busy New York executives, Edelen said. Masha Edelen’s Web design company, HerDesign, maintains the site and has become important to the business, he said, because if there’s a problem that causes the site to go down, the income it generates just stops.

The site gets about 60,000 unique hits a month and more than 2,500 orders per month, Edelen said, which works out to about 30,000 pieces moved and about 20 percent of the company’s overall business.

He said he expects it to continue growing because although older people can be resistant to buying things online, young people are comfortable with the practice.

As the ribbon was cut for the new facility in front of dozens of local officials and businesspeople, Edelen said he wants to keep his company’s business “growing and going.”

His father, John Fenwick “Finney” Edelen Sr., who came to the area as a sales representative for the Baltimore-based company in the 1950s, spoke at the dedication and cut the ribbon. After Finney Edelen’s move, the company had nearly a half century of successful relationships here. In 1996, the company began renting its original warehouse in Bowles Industrial Park to serve local customers such as Stanley Furniture and American of Martinsville.

“It’s a great honor for me to be able to do this,” said Finney Edelen, who also said he thinks the new facility is “just wonderful.”

The building, which was designed by Eden and Associates and built by Frith Construction, took seven months to complete. It contains warehouse space, office space and a showroom. Edelen said the showroom was an exciting concept because people can come in and look at what the company offers, place their orders and walk away with them that day.

One unique feature of the building, located on Hollie Drive, is that the warehouse space has 40-foot ceilings. Edelen said the high ceilings give the company much more storage space — four levels of rack space compared with three in the company’s original facility.

The new facility has not created any jobs in and of itself, Edelen said, but a job here or there has been added as the company has grown and he hopes to add more. J.G. Edelen employs 13 people at its Martinsville facility, he said.

“We don’t provide a lot of jobs, but they’re very high quality jobs,” he said, with competitive wages for this area and good benefits.

Henry County Board of Supervisors Chairman H.G. Vaughn said he was impressed with the facility and how the company is succeeding despite downturns in the furniture market.

“For our community to be prosperous you have to have prosperous businesses and prosperous individuals, and J.G. Edelen is certainly doing its part,” he said.