OGDEN -- With the snip of a ribbon on Monday, CSN Stores LLC, the nation's second-largest online retailer of home goods, will officially open a 50,000-square-foot customer service and distribution center at 550 S. Depot Drive in Business Depot Ogden.
The Boston-based company has been operating since May at the facility that will serve the Western region, said CSN co-founder Steven Conine.
About 100 area workers have been hired for the new facility and another 260 are slated to be employed by the fall of 2012.
CSN employees at the Ogden facility handle in-bound sales and customer service inquiries as well as product receiving and shipping. CSN still has about 800 employees at its Boston headquarters.
New employees at the Ogden facility are grasping their jobs so quickly that the company's staff in Boston is taking notice, Conine said.
"The team back in Boston is scared," he said with a chuckle during an interview Friday at the Ogden facility. "They (Ogden employees) are performing well."
CSN's corporate culture stresses common shared goals among employees.
Conine said neither he nor his executive staff have swanky offices and instead work at desks on the sales floor next to rank-and-file employees.
"We like the open collegial aspect," he said.
Established in 2002 by Conine and CSN Chief Executive Officer Niraj Shah, the company began by selling entertainment furniture.
At first the company operated out of a room at Conine's house but now offers 3 million different items representing 5,000 brands.
It also handles more than 250 different shopping sites under the company's overall umbrella. Websites include Luggage.com, Cookware.com, AllModern.com and BedroomFurniture.com.
Last year CSN posted about $380 million in sales and projects $500 million in sales this year, Conine said.
CSN picked Ogden for its Western headquarters largely due to Utah's favorable business climate and assistance from city officials in securing a location for the facility, Conine said.
"They (city officials) were very friendly and helpful," he said, adding CSN chose Ogden over locations in Nevada.
Ogden officials diligently pursued CSN and the company was eventually won over by the city's amenities and location as well as the area's natural beauty. Conine noted that the mountains surrounding Ogden are vastly different than the company's Boston operation housed in a downtown high-rise.
The Ogden facility enables CSN to deliver products to most customers in the Western region within two business days, said Conine.
The city isn't providing any cash incentives to CSN but has offered infrastructure improvements and allowances for office furniture and fixtures, Mayor Matthew Godfrey has said.
Information about the value of those allowances was not available.
"We have been working hard to attract more e-commerce companies to Ogden and are thrilled to have CSN, the second-largest home furnishings online retailer, open up shop here," Godfey said in a prepared statement. "They are an impressive, rapidly growing company that will provide hundreds of good-paying jobs for our community."
CSN will invest $1.5 million in its Ogden facility that it's leasing from The Boyer Company and will pay more than $2.7 million in state taxes over the next decade, according to the Governor's Office of Economic Development.
Tax incentives from GOED of $548,500 will be paid as jobs are created.
The Utah Department of Workforce Services will provide up to $200,000 in training funds for new employees hired during the first two years of CSN's operations in Ogden.
Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College will also be providing ongoing CSN employee training.
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