FRANKLIN — The Duluth Trading Company has opened its first ever Tennessee location in Franklin, and store employees held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to mark the occasion.
The new store will have 35 to 45 employees, said General Manager Nate Digre.
Duluth Trading Company employees are scheduled to open a store in Knoxville next week.
Duluth Trading Company is based out of Mt. Horeb, Wisconsin. The store offers Duluthoffers men’s and women’s casual wear, workwear, apothecary, and accessories.
Franklin Mayor Ken Moore was present at Thursday’s ceremonies and said residents “will spend a lot of money here, and the city will get a lot of sales tax.”
Digre told The Tennessee Star his company sells what he called “solution-based workwear and lifestyle products.”
“Everything we design is based around efficiency and effectiveness of getting work done, and we also tend to be a little more innovative,” he said.
“We add pockets. We add little knick-knacks to products that you can seamlessly use. And, of course, I am leaving out the part where we have super durability,” Digre continued. “We have the durability, and then we add the functionality to it. Let’s say you are a carpenter and you do a lot of cutting and measuring and things like that. We have pockets for your pencil or other things of that nature. Solution-based means we are looking at products from a tradesperson’s mindset and making sure those folks test it first.”
Duluth already has two stores in Alabama and three stores in Georgia, Digre said.
“We are a rapid growing company, we are always looking at new locations strategically, where our loyal customer base is and making those decisions as we move forward. We have more locations we are looking at in the south as well as out west, out east. We are looking at all parts in the country,” he added.
The Franklin store is located at 1725 Galleria Blvd.
The Knoxville store, meanwhile, is at 116 N. Cedar Bluff Road.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
Clarksville Tennessee could use this store