Sierra Trading Post, the Cheyenne Business Parkway’s first tenant, recently announced construction is in progress on a 284,000-square-foot fulfillment center located on 40 acres adjacent to the company’s Cheyenne headquarters facility.

"We are tremendously pleased to see the progress and growth of Sierra Trading Post since they located in Cheyenne in 1992," Cheyenne LEADS President Randy Bruns said. "Sierra Trading Post has been a continuous success story and one that we often use to help recruit other businesses to our area."

The first phase of construction is slated for completion in October 2002 with the entire building scheduled for completion by mid-December 2002.

Keith Richardson, owner of Sierra Trading Post, said: "We have been very excited about our growth. It is tremendously helpful that Cheyenne and Wyoming are so business friendly."

Sierra ships between 5,000 to 6,000 orders daily with 80 to 90 percent of those orders shipped within 24 hours from the company’s existing fulfillment center.

"The larger facility will allow us to move a higher volume of product with the same quick turnaround," Fulfillment Director Robin Jahnke said.

According to Jahnke, the new center is designed to eventually be able to handle approximately 27,000 to 30,000 orders per day during peak season. This translates to between 1,000 and 1,200 total employees in seven to 10 years. The company currently employs approximately 500.

Additionally, the center will allow Sierra to consolidate inventory from four off-site warehouses.

The "energy conscious" building will utilize GPS driven solar sky lights, motion detector activated lighting in pick areas, so only aisles being worked in will be lit, and the south wall will have panels to utilize sunlight.

Founded in 1986 in Reno, Nev., Sierra Trading Post became the nation’s first mail-order outlet store. Growth has been rapid with sales increasing more than 40 percent annually.

In 1992, Keith Richardson and his wife Bobbi relocated to Cheyenne from Reno and built a 36,000-square-foot fulfillment center including a retail store situated on seven acres in the Cheyenne Business Parkway. They began in Cheyenne with 60 employees and an annual mailing of just under 8 million catalogs.

In 1995, accelerating a five-year plan by two years, Sierra Trading Post expanded its fulfillment center by 36,000 square feet. In 1996, they doubled the space available for their phone center and added more than 8,200 square feet of mezzanine area in the warehouse. In 1997, 18,000 square feet of mezzanine was added to the fulfillment center and store, and in 1999, the company expanded its warehouse and retail store to 154,000 square feet.

STP maintains its Reno, Nev., retail outlet, doubling its space in 2002 to 26,000 square feet. Additionally, the company opened a third retail store in Cody, Wyo., in 2000 and built a call center there in 2001. Along with its catalog, retail stores and call centers, customers can also browse and purchase online at www.sierratradingpost.com.

Sierra Trading Post purchases excess inventory and closeouts at very low prices. They sell name-brand outdoor clothing and equipment at discounts of 35 to 70 percent. Manufacturers include Patagonia, Columbia, The North Face, Carhartt, Kelty, Merrell, and Dr. Marten. The company’s six catalog titles include Sierra Trading Post, Sierra Shoes etc., Sierra Travel, Sierra Woman, Sierra Adventure Edge, and Sierra Outdoors.