MARION — A seed was planted 60 years ago when Bob and Betty Bunch opened a farm supply store in the city of Texarkana, Texas. By 1972, the business, BWI Companies, Inc., had started wholesale operations, eventually expanding to 18 locations across the Southeast and Midwest and employing more than 600 people. 

In the early 1980s, the company came to Mississippi, opening a facility in Jackson to distribute farm and garden supplies across the region.

But, over time, the Nash, Texas-based company needed more space and a better location.

So the company, now led by a second generation of Bunches, decided to move east, and in May 2017, broke ground on a facility in Marion.

There, a wide variety of lawn, garden and horticulture products is now being distributed throughout the South. The facility, which started shipping on June 11, will host a grand opening from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 10. A ribbon cutting is planned for 11 a.m. 

About BWI

BWI distributes products for lawn and garden, animal health, horticulture, professional pest management, and turf markets to garden centers, farm and feed stores, hardware stores, grocery, regional multi-store outlets, greenhouse growers, nursery growers, landscapers, lawn and land care companies, golf courses, and other related outlets.

Source: BWI website

The center, one of eight, serves the southern half of Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, as well as the panhandle of Florida. A facility in Memphis serves the northern halves of those states.

A necessary move 

The move to Marion was necessary for two reasons, according to Billy Key, a division manager with BWI who runs the facility.

“We were in Jackson for 36 years, but we outgrew that facility,” Key said. “And we also needed to move east.”

The company was also looking for a connection to the railroad, said Bill Hannah, president and CEO of The East Mississippi Business Development Corporation, who started working on the deal with BWI about two years ago.

All told, the center covers 90,000 square feet, which includes an 81,000 square feet warehouse and 9,000 square feet of office space. There’s also plenty of space to expand, which is something the company is hoping for, Key said.

“We’ve got it ready to add on, if we need to, another 20,000 square feet,” he said. “We wouldn’t have moved if we didn’t think we were going to grow.”

The facility employs about 60 people, Key said, with 38 working on site and the remainder traveling the region on sales calls. The center runs two shifts: a Sunday to Thursday night shift, which takes care of picking and loading the trucks, and a Monday to Friday day shift, which is responsible for receiving and replenishing the stock.

Key said at the Marion site, more than half of their business is with farm stores, such as local and regional co-ops. Other customers include Van Zyverden, Magnolia Green and pest control companies.The center is a distribution facility, not a retail center. 

In the back of the facility is a rail spur, which will connect the center to the Kansas City Southern railroad, allowing BWI to receive shipments from other parts of the country, such as rye grass seed all the way from Oregon, Key said.

A large conference room upstairs will be used for sales meetings, something new for the company. At other sites, those meetings are held at local community colleges, Key said. 

Community support

Key, who has worked for BWI for about eight years, says the community has been welcoming.

“Every day, the Marion police come through this parking lot,” he said. “You didn’t see that in Jackson, so we appreciate that. The Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Department has been here. We’ve really been made to feel welcome here.”

Getting the company to relocate to Marion took some teamwork. In addition to the EMBDC, The Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, The Mississippi Development Authority and The Town of Marion joined together to attract the company, competing against locations such as Montgomery, Alabama.

“They really made an easy choice for us,” said Robert Bunch, who serves as co-president and CEO of BWI with his brother, Jim Bunch. “Now we can do a better job of servicing Montgomery and Birmingham. That was almost out of range for us with our distribution center in Jackson.” 

Bunch, whose parents – the company’s founders – plan to be on hand for Tuesday’s grand opening, said the warm welcome the company has recieved in East Mississippi “means everything.”

“It makes it so much easier to get things done,” he said, recalling problems the company had when it built its last facility in Florida. “It was a dream to come deal with a local contractor, a city like Marion and a county like Lauderdale that made things easy for us.” 

‘A no-brainer’

The BWI deal was an easy sell for Elvis Hudson, the long-serving mayor of Marion, an eastern suburb of Meridian with a population of about 1,500 people.

“I’ve got a hay field versus a company – that’s a no-brainer,” Hudson said about the site, adding that he was pleasantly surprised by the sheer size of the facility.

“I had heard the square footage, but until you see something, it doesn’t register,” he said. “I had no idea it was going to be this size.”

Hudson, who said he was “really impressed” after touring the building recently, expects to see an economic boost since it opened. 

“We need more eateries here, because we have more workers that need to be fed,” he said. “They need places to eat, places to shop. I’m trying to grow the retail to match the population.”

Down the road, Hudson sees the town’s willingness to work with business leaders paying off.

“For the town of Marion, it can’t be anything but wonderful,” Hudson emphasized. “There are bigger and better things to come from it, that will draw other people and businesses to this area.”

Hannah agrees.

“I think it’s going to be great for Marion,” he said.