[C]LARENDON — The Vermont Country Store, having bounced back from a fall stockroom fire that incinerated more than $2 million in inventory, hopes to break ground here this spring on a warehouse expansion at its catalog, customer service and website operations center.
The $100 million retro retailer was preparing for what it hoped to be a best-ever Christmas season last October when a late-night blaze consumed a 16,000-square-foot backup storage facility it recently had purchased just down the road from its nearby call and distribution center.
The three-generation family-run business was able to restock most of its shelves in time for the holidays, but still lacks the additional space it lost in the blaze.
“As we considered what to do next, it made the most sense for us to expand the existing footprint at our warehouse, rather than rebuild at the property on Route 7B,” Eliot Orton, part of the fourth and latest generation of family storekeepers, said this week in a statement.
The business will seek permits for a 12,000-square-foot addition at its operations center at Clarendon’s Rutland Airport Business Park, with hopes of starting construction this spring and finishing in time to receive goods by the end of the year.
“We had considered expanding this facility in the past, so we had a design ready and some permits in place, which will expedite the construction process,” Orton said. “This will potentially give us access to new space this fall and allows us to maintain our inventory in one location, which has the greatest efficiency. Given the options, this is the one that is best for our business.”
The late Vrest Orton, inspired by childhood memories of his father’s turn-of-the-century general store in North Calais, established the Vermont Country Store in Weston in 1946.
The self-described “Purveyors of the Practical and Hard-to-Find,” now represented by Vrest’s son Lyman and grandsons Cabot, Gardner and Eliot, has grown to include a second store in Rockingham, head office in Manchester and call and distribution center in Clarendon — giving the operation a foothold in each of the state’s four southernmost counties.
The business doesn’t expect the expansion to change its seasonal or year-round staffing levels, which are estimated to total around 450 employees. It also doesn’t plan on rebuilding the fire scene, which has been cleaned up and now sits vacant — although the family, born marketers, appear interested in selling it.
“It would be an ideal location for the right business or builder who wants to locate as close as possible to the airport industrial park and one of the biggest employment centers in the region,” Eliot Orton said.
