Business First - October 7, 2005
The 10 Feeders Supply Company Inc. location in the Louisville area have St. Matthews surrounded.
The Louisville-based chain of pet and supplies centers has been delayed in coming to St. Matthews because of a lack of a satisfactory location, according to Pam Longwell, president and CEO of the 46-year-old company.
But the company’s five-year search is over. Feeders Supply is slated to move into a 14,500-square-foot location in the Shelbyville Road Plaza, in space that formerly housed a Coconuts music store, which closed a few months ago.
The renovation of the space – which entails adding a pet wash area, a fish department, an adoption center and two puppy playrooms – is expected to be finished by early November. The store should be open for business by mid-November, Longwell said. She wouldn’t disclose renovation costs.
“St. Matthews is a great area with lots of people and lots of pets,” she said. The location will have about 20 employees.
Longwell said the Feeders Supply location in the Avish Gardens shopping center, near The Summit shopping center in eastern Jefferson County, is the company’s top sales performer. She expects the St. Matthews location to do the same amount of business as the Avish Gardens location, if not more.
Longwell also hasn’t ruled out future expansions. “We are always looking at the suburbs, Frankfort, Bardstown, Shepherdsville,” she said, “But we don’t want to get too far away from home because that makes it harder to stay hands-on with customer service.”
Two other shops were signed recently by Hagan Properties Inc., the real estate firm that manages Shelbyville Road Plaza.
Scrubs Central LLC, which carries work apparel for nurses and doctors, is owned by Perry Brown, who has operated another store in New Albany for about 18 months. The St. Matthews store has been open about a month, and Brown said business has been so good he’s already expanding hours and is adding workers.
Kevin Flanner, president of Hagan Properties, said the back of the plaza funnels into a complex of health care facilities, giving Scrubs Central a customer base that should help the business succeed.
Another new plaza tenant is EmbroidMe, a 1,400-square-foot franchise operation that offers custom embroidery services.