Already an industry leader in seasonal, gift and home décor products in the U.S., Gerson Companies continues to grow organically and expand through acquisition.
All of the growth is adding jobs at the Gerson headquarters, helping cement the 83-year-old company right here in our community.
Gerson opened the doors of its 500,000 sq. ft. warehouse and office in Olathe on 50 acres on Lone Elm Road nearly 25 years ago and has been growing steadily since. Their current footprint is expansive, but there’s room on their 50-acre campus for future growth, which was planned from the start.
“When we opened here in Olathe around 2001, we had an architect get a site plan together on the southern edge of our property to add a standalone facility as large as 230,000 sq. ft.,” Gerson Chairman and CEO John Hjalmarson said. “As we continue to grow organically or through acquisition, that (additional facility) is a definite possibility.”
Two acquisitions Gerson made in the past two years show that growth.
The most recent acquisition – just four months ago – was Christmas by Krebs, which was based in Dallas with a distribution center in Roswell, N.M. The company is a leader in holiday ornaments and with the addition, Gerson saw their offering in the ornament space go from 150 to more than 1,200 SKUs.
Hjalmarson said they had space within their headquarters in Olathe to consolidate and bring everything here.
“It made sense to bring all of that here to (our headquarters) and allowed us to do a lot more in-house,” he said.
Not only did the acquisition bring nearly 30 jobs to Olathe, Gerson was able to bring the printing/decorating equipment along with them. That gives Gerson the ability to have the blown glass and shatter-proof ornaments brought into Olathe and all the printing on the ornaments is now done in house.
Hjalmarson added that the company’s capacity and sales reach allow them to make these acquisitions lucrative.
“By eliminating certain fixed costs, we’re able to take a company that has low to marginal profits and turn them into a much more profitable company,” he said.
The decision to move Christmas by Krebs to Olathe was a no-brainer, according to Hjalmarson, but that wasn’t the case with their previous acquisition in February of 2023 and that is just fine with the leadership team at Gerson.
They acquired the Park Hill Collection in early 2023 to increase their presence in the design-inspired, furniture and home décor space. Park Hill is one of the industry’s most recognized and celebrated home furnishing brands. They are headquartered in Little Rock, Ark. and Hjalmarson said it made sense to keep them in Arkansas.
“Park Hill made sense to keep in Little Rock,” he said. “In the future, when we expand, we’ll have the space to possibly move them to Olathe, and that could be around 100 more jobs for the community.”
That’s two acquisitions in two years that could net in the neighborhood of 130 jobs in Olathe. “And we’re currently looking at a two or three other companies to expand further,” Hjalmarson said.
Meanwhile, Gerson continues to lead the way in providing some of the most outstanding seasonal products available.
“First and foremost we’re a product-based company,” Hjalmarson said. “We have contracts with manufacturers internationally that provide products for us that we sell to retailers large and small, across the country.
“We have more than 10,000 different product offerings and are constantly looking for new and different products for our more than 15,000 active retail accounts.”
Like many companies, finding employees can be difficult. As a company that leans so heavily into seasonal products, they have two peak shipping seasons – one in the winter and another from late summer to early fall. The latter of which is set to begin next month when Hjalmarson said they’ll need 30-40 distribution center jobs filled. Such is the problem for many growing companies.