By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer
ANDERSON — In a 45-day whirlwind, the building at 516 Meridian St. transformed from an empty shell to a full-fledged casket manufacturing plant as Anderson company C.J. Boots Casket Co. moved into its new home.
As company owner Chris Boots put it, “Moving a casket company is quite the undertaking.”
After outgrowing its 20,000-square-foot facility on 38th Street, C.J. Boots Casket Co. began looking for other space, finding the 43,000-square-foot downtown building at the beginning of August. The company moved into its new digs the first week of November and started production there the next week.
“It’s been amazing,” Boots said. “The support from the local businesses and contributors made it helpful.”
The new building had the right price and its layout was conducive to Boots’ business flow, he said. It will allow the company to expand production, particularly on its lines of green, oversized and entry-level hardwood caskets, and eventually to hire more workers.
“We hope to be able to build our business in such a way that we can create more jobs and more opportunities for the city of Anderson for years to come,” Boots said.
The new casket plant at the corner of Fifth and Meridian streets was once a Ford dealership, a distribution center, a skating rink and a dance studio, said C.J. Boots Vice President of Marketing and Merchandising Jim Rogers. Workers spent long days, nights and weekends remodeling it to fit the casket company’s needs.
“They worked very, very hard to make this happen in a short amount of time,” Boots said. “All of the roads led to Fifth and Meridian.”
The company’s new offices have plush navy carpet and warm tan walls, and the production plant is separated into stations, where each casket is handmade in a series of steps. It takes about 34 hours to finish one casket, Rogers said.
“We’re into lean manufacturing,” he said. “You won’t see a ton of caskets sitting around. Everything we do comes from raw lumber. We do everything in-house.”
The caskets are made from lumber, 80 percent of which comes from Indiana. Each casket is handmade from its wooden exterior to its fabric interior, which can be customized with embroidered or photo panels. Rogers recalled one casket made for a young boy with cancer that had an interior made from Indiana Pacers jerseys and a logo of the Fishers Police Department painted on the outside.
The company has made about 20,000 caskets in its 10 years in business. It ships caskets around Indiana and to 14 other states.
Boots said he wanted to keep the company in Anderson because all of its employees live there.
“We’re glad to say that a casket company can help bring more life to downtown Anderson,” he said.
Contact Aleasha Sandley: 640-4805, aleasha.sandley@heraldbulletin.com.
