Creative Audio plans HQ, distribution center in Ozark

Rendering provided by Creative Audio

Creative Audio is moving to 25,000 square feet in Ozark.

Last edited 2:11 p.m., Oct. 11, 2018

Springfield-based Creative Audio is planning a move to Ozark with a new multiphase headquarters and distribution center development.

President Don Fleury said the five-store audio electronics company is hosting an Oct. 16 groundbreaking ceremony at 2151 Lakeland Drive along U.S. Highway 65 in Ozark, about five miles south of Lambert’s Cafe. The office and distribution center would replace the company’s existing headquarters at 2534 N. Patterson Ave. in Springfield, he said, where a 12,000-square-foot warehouse is nearly full.

“We’re going to sell the Patterson building and move everything over to one single location,” Fleury said. “We’ve just outgrown it with our e-commerce growing, our retail space growing. It made sense to have a distribution center.”

Fleury said Phase I of the new headquarters, spanning 25,000 square feet, would cost approximately $1.5 million. Costs haven’t been determined for Phase II, which calls for doubling the campus to 50,000 square feet on 6.7 acres within five years.

“Our goal is to be moving at the end of February or beginning of March,” he said. “Our spring business starts to pick up after March.”

With the new headquarters in Ozark, Fleury said the company intends to hire up to 30 employees during the next five years. Currently, Creative Audio employs 46 at its headquarters and five stores in Springfield, Joplin, Sedalia, Columbia and Pittsburg, Kansas.

Creative Audio hired Ozark-based Construction Processing Co. as general contractor and Springfield-based Burns Architecture as architect for the development, Fleury said.

Declining to disclose annual revenue, Fleury said Creative Audio is on track for 20 percent growth this year. He said top products are mobile audio electronics, as well as systems for boats.