ARCADIA, Wis. – Ashley Furniture has broken ground on a $30 million, 500,000-square-foot expansion in its hometown.
The expansion will include a new e-commerce fulfillment and distribution center. Ashley says the expansion will allow its current 175-acre site to fulfill e-commerce orders more quickly and store more furniture onsite.
Ashley founder and chairman Ron Wanek said the site is necessary for competing with e-commerce giants like Amazon.
“It’s an entirely different way of processing and shipping orders,” said Wanek. "We have to earn the right to do business, we have to earn the right to earn the customer's confidence, if Amazon can deliver in two days, that's where the customer is going to go."
The expansion will create 450 jobs at the site, which already employs 5,000. The facility is scheduled to open February 2018. It’s the largest expansion in the site’s 47-year history.
Amazon is currently building an 850,000-square-foot e-commerce facility in Georgia.
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