Posted: Oct 17, 2023 07:00 am
Local officials as well as members of the McCurdy family, owners of Kimball Midwest, gathered to celebrate the opening of the company's new distribution center in Newtown on Friday, October 6.
Kimball Midwest, a national industrial supplier based in Columbus, Ohio, broke ground on its new distribution center at 14 Prospect Drive, just months before the company's centennial.
The 142,000-square-foot facility, which the company acquired in 2021 before undertaking an extensive remodeling process, will enable improved service to thousands of customers in the northeastern United States.
“We appreciate all the hard work that so many people put into getting our new distribution center up and running,” said Kimball Midwest President Patrick McCurdy III. “We already have an extensive client list in the area and this location will allow us to better serve our existing clients as well as new ones in the future.”
Newtown is the smallest community to host a Kimball Midwest distribution center, but its strategic location made it the right choice for the next step in the company's growth.
“We are grateful to have found such an ideal location in Newtown,” said McCurdy. “We appreciate the welcome we've received from the community and look forward to working with them for many years to come.”
First Selectman Dan Rosenthal said it was a “happy day” to see the site once again occupied and busy. He said he was last on the property in 2019 before Hubbell, another family business, vacated the building.
“Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good,” Rosenthal said, referring to the building being reoccupied so quickly. “We went from a family business to another family business.”
Rosenthal said town boards and commissions such as the Board of Selectmen, the Board of Legislators, the Board of Finance and the Economic Development Commission were all behind Kimball Midwest's move to the building, and he said Kimball was a “big business.”
“It makes me more positive about where Connecticut's economy is going,” said Rosenthal, who went on to say that Kimball is “already woven into the fabric of the city.”
State Sen. Tony Hwang (R-28) said Kimball Midwest “saw a community that matched their values,” as well as having “geographic convenience” for their business and “great city leadership.”
Kimball Midwest primarily serves its customers through a network of more than 1,200 sales representatives throughout the continental United States. It was recently listed as the 30th largest industrial supply company in the country by Industrial Distribution.
In the last year, it has been honored among the 50 Best Companies to Sell by Selling power magazine and received Education Magazine's Training APEX Award.
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Associate Editor Jim Taylor can be reached at jim@thebee.com.
First Selectman Dan Rosenthal cuts the ribbon at a grand ribbon cutting ceremony with members of the McCurdy family (who own Kimball Midwest), Kimball Midwest employees, as well as local officials. —Bee Photo, Taylor
