Malouf receives major rural tax credit, will create 4,200 new jobs

By Brice Wallace 

Malouf Companies is making itself comfortable and at home in Utah.

It’s getting help from the state.

Malouf, famous for its home furnishings products, has committed to expanding its Cache County headquarters, adding up to 4,200 jobs over the next two decades. The announcement came after the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity (Go Utah) approved a rural tax credit of up to $56 million to help the company make the $450 million project become reality.

The job-creation figure is the largest ever tied to a Utah tax credit incentive. The tax credit maximum amount is the second-largest, behind Northrop Grumman’s, which was nearly $60 million. It ranks fourth for an incentivized project’s capital expenditure — IM Flash was the largest, at $1.5 billion.

“The booming growth of business in Utah is a testament to the Governor’s Office of Economic Opportunity,” Sam Malouf, CEO, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve been able to work together to fuel our expansion and build out our international headquarters in Cache Valley, even through a difficult year. I’m excited to see what we can accomplish with this additional support from the state.”

The Nibley-based company has expanded from a bedding company 18 years ago to a health and wellness conglomerate that employs over 1,200 people in three corporate offices and seven distribution centers across the nation.

The company was founded in 2003 by Sam and Kacie Malouf, who found success selling premium sheets and bedding products to specialty retail stores. The couple was also one of the first to sell boxed mattresses that can be delivered directly to homes. Its products now are available in 58 countries.

Prominent Malouf companies include home furnishings innovators Malouf Home, Lucid, Linenspa and Dr. Oz Good Life; Utah retail company Downeast, which includes home and apparel divisions; technology and app pioneer Impact Suite; and venture-focused family office Tamarak Capital. The company has more than 55 brands.

Malouf also is Utah’s largest Certified B Corporation, meaning it focuses on using its business as a force for good. The Malouf Foundation exists to confront child sexual exploitation, specifically sex trafficking and online abuse, by providing education, promoting healing, and ensuring justice for survivors.

Go Utah documents indicate the project will increase the usable office space at its headquarters. Malouf wants to retool its current warehouse space to become offices, research and development space, and photo/video studio space.

The company expects to invest $4 million to $5 million into the project in construction costs within the next year, with an additional $445 million expected to be spent over the next 20 years at the campus.

The expansion project is expected to generate nearly $3.8 billion in new wages over 20 years and new state tax revenue of $186.8 million during that time. The new jobs are expected to pay an average of $61,257.

The newest incentive follows a May 2020 state tax credit incentive of nearly $14.4 million tied to the creation of 1,195 jobs over a decade in a $120 million operations expansion and growth at its corporate headquarters.

Daniel Royal, Go Utah’s director of corporate growth and business development, said Utah faced competition from Ohio and South Carolina to land the newest expansion project.

“The number of jobs Malouf Companies plans to bring to the state will have a lasting impact in Northern Utah,” Dan Hemmert, Go Utah’s executive director, said in a prepared statement. “In the next 20 years, the company plans to hire for jobs in finance, legal, sales and development, engineering, product development, and many more. We look forward to the company’s success and wish them the best with this expansion.”

“While EDCUtah’s involvement in this specific expansion was minimal, we join the rest of ‘Team Utah’ in congratulating the company for its continued and growing presence in Cache Valley,” said Theresa A. Foxley, president and CEO of the Economic Development Corporation of Utah (EDCUtah).

During the Go Utah board meeting, Jeff Steed, Malouf’s chief legal officer, was asked about the increased hiring at the company — it has hired more than 300 people this year already — and its impact on other local employers. Steed said that “the rising tide lifts all boats.”

“That would be my hope, that we’re not going to start stealing other people’s employees,” Steed said. “I think we’ve had a fairly healthy competition a little bit in the local market with some of the other bigger players there, and sometimes they win and sometimes we win for talent.”

Much of the company’s recent headcount growth has come either from outside Utah or from Salt Lake City, Provo, St. George and other areas in the state, he said.

“As we keep growing our footprint, obviously, yes, there’s going to be a fight for local talent,” Steed said, “but I think that it’s already getting more national in our search to where people are coming from and joining the company.”