Over the next ten years, Knox County will be gaining an estimated 500 jobs as the rapidly expanding Melaleuca operations at Forks of the River Industrial Park become stable. The Idaho-based supplier of nutritional supplements is expected to rake in an estimated $900 million in profits and plans to exceed that figure annually. "I suspect it is probably four or five new jobs immediately, but I am going to forecast probably 45 to 55 jobs a year at this facility," said Frank Vandersloot. "But that is long term as we grow. So over the next 10 years this will add over 500 jobs."
According to Vandersloot, The original Melaleuca facility had been used for production and distribution which will change when the new facility takes over distribution, allowing the old building to remain as a production plant. Once fully staffed, the new distribution center will make full use of the latest automated processes and allow the Knox County operation to triple its number of shipments to about 300,000 packages per month.
Melaleuca is a producer of cleaning supplies, nutritional supplements, and personal care products that distributes its products via its associates whom function as direct marketers. Associates make a profit by signing up customers and earning bonuses on products those customers purchase.
When Melaleuca came to Knoxville 17 years ago, the company was looking for an East coast-based location to serve as its manufacturing and distribution center, however its first choice was not Knoxville according to Vandersloot.
Research led the company to buying and hiring workers in Raleigh-Durham, N.C., however, few people applied for the jobs and of those that did, few performed well. It was decided to move operations elsewhere, Vandersloot said.
Initially, the Knoxville Chamber began recruiting Melaleuca, but faced the hurdle of the company's reluctance to commit to a community unless it felt sure the needs of its workforce would be met. The organization persuaded Melaleuca to run blind newspaper ads offering jobs in Knoxville to see what happened.
"We needed to show them that we could get the employees because that was their biggest concern," said, Rhonda Rice, executive vice president of the Knoxville Chamber.
