One of the oldest retailers in Bakersfield celebrated its first expansion outside Kern County with a ribbon-cutting Thursday at its new store in Fresno.
The ceremony outside the new, 15,000-square-foot store Urner’s at Herndon and North Willow avenues came as the company considers opening another location later in the Visalia area, leveraging its longstanding connections with builders across the Central Valley.
While the new location directly supports half a dozen jobs north of Kern County, President and CEO Cameron Illingworth said the move could lead Urner’s to make additional investments in Bakersfield as the company looks at hiring more drivers and warehouse workers to serve the expansion.
Expanding east, west and south were out of the question for different reasons, he noted, but heading north has already shown promise as sales have increased month by month since the store’s opening Jan. 31.
“It’s growth and we’re excited,” Illingworth said. He called the area “a little underserved in respects.”
The new location sells products ranging from affordable to high-end goods, with about two-thirds of the floor space devoted to appliance sales and the rest to mattresses. The store won’t sell furniture, at least initially, he said, because of local competition and the store’s modest size.
Fellow Bakersfield retailer Mark Carroll, who as president of Carpet Outlet Plus has also overseen northward expansion, agreed with the wisdom of tapping connections and name recognition in the Fresno and Visalia areas.
“It makes perfect sense, really,” Carroll said.
“They’re very similar markets,” he said, comparing the Fresno and Visalia markets to that of Bakersfield. All three areas benefit from relatively affordable housing.
He predicted Urner’s will do well selling to homebuyers outfitting new construction and to existing homeowners moving into other properties.
“All those transactions create opportunity for our retail space,” Carroll said, referring to his business as well as Urner’s.
Celebrating its 107th birthday this year, Urner’s has half a dozen stores around Bakersfield, including what it calls outlets that sell discount items that may have been scratched or dented.
Illingworth said companywide sales have increased 5% to 7% annually in recent years.
He let loose a few zingers at Thursday’s event, including quips about how his father handed him the reins to Urner’s last summer so he could test out the company’s mattresses instead of selling them.
Cameron added that he’s been looking forward to handling giant scissors without anyone calling security.
The company has seen a good many trends come and go, he said, setting up another joke.
“We survived the era of avocado green, outlasted harvest gold and we’re still standing after the great waterbed movement of the ‘80s,’” Illingworth said.
“We’ve seen it all, and luckily for you, we didn’t bring any of those classics with us to this new showroom!”