CES Midtown Memphis, TN: The First Branch in a Brand-New Market

[Memphis, Tennessee] — When Memphis comes to mind, you might think of the Memphis Grizzlies, Graceland, and Beale Street, one of the most iconic streets in America with three blocks of music and nightlife. But to CES Midtown Memphis Branch Manager Matt Murrell, there’s so much more to Memphis than just the sights and sounds — there’s a lot of opportunity.  

“I’ve lived and worked in Memphis my whole life,” he said. “Memphis is always growing, so when I started to hire my team, I wanted to make sure that I was putting together a quality team that’d work well together and know the city as well as I do.”

For this branch in midtown Memphis, this new team is getting the best of both worlds: they can service just about the entire city from their central location, and they can also handle deliveries into neighboring Arkansas and Mississippi suburbs.

“We’ve been open for about three weeks now, and we’re already receiving orders for deliveries outside of Memphis,” Murrell said. “It just shows that there’s a need for a supplier here. We’re happy to be the first one in the Memphis market to help get things started.”

The First Memphis Branch

As of right now, Memphis appears to be an underserved city for electrical distributors. There are a couple of competitors within two miles of the CES Midtown Memphis location, but the branch is looking forward to showing that there’s enough business in the city for even more branches to open up.

“With all the growth in the commercial and residential market here, I can easily see Memphis turning into its own district,” Murrell said. “It’s up to us to prove that CES can be successful here, and we’re excited to do that.”

It’s important for contractors in Memphis to have a supplier with a nationwide network capable of covering this growing market, but it’s even more important that the team servicing them has the experience to handle whatever they need.

“This team is special,” Murrell said. “My Operations Manager Josh Childress is one of the most dependable guys I have ever worked with. He handles daily business and takes great care of customers. Jason Cruse is new to CES, but he worked as an electrician in the field before starting as our salesman.”

“Patrick is our driver, and he is very dependable, too,” Murrell continued. “He knows the city and has a lot of contacts and great relationships with electricians here. Then there’s Danny Britt, one of the hardest workers I know. Everybody here is always on top of things, giving 100% effort.”

From CES Bartlett to CES Midtown Memphis

Although Murrell is still adapting to being Branch Manager, he’s had a huge learning opportunity working out of CES Bartlett.

“I came on in the February of 2019, but while we worked on finding the new location and renovating the branch and bringing in inventory, COVID-19 hit. So, me and my team worked out of CES Bartlett for a year, learning the ropes and seeing how well we work together.”

That trial period for Murrell and his team turned out to be huge. He oversaw the daily responsibilities of being a branch manager, and watched how his team worked together and with customers.

“At CES Bartlett, they helped us get started,” Murrell said. “I worked for two distributors in Memphis, but never a supplier like City Electric Supply. I used to wonder how everything was going to work. But after learning from my time at CES Bartlett, I can see all the opportunity available here. And I can see how it all comes together.”

When CES Midtown Memphis had the green light, it seemed like transitioning from Bartlett was going to be tricky. They still had to source inventory and set up their computers, but it went as smoothly as possible for Murrell.

“As soon as we stepped foot inside, we hit the ground running,” he said. “More than a few customers were ready and waiting to open accounts with us as soon we opened our doors. Leading up to our first day, we were already receiving a lot of phone calls and orders.”

Right in the Middle of It All

Now that CES Midtown Memphis is officially up and running, Murrell is excited to see what’s in store for his team and first-ever branch.

“Because we’re centrally located in Memphis, we can deliver anywhere in the city. We’re 10-15 minutes away from anywhere, which is huge for contractors here,” he said. “It’s exciting to be opening up in a brand-new market. We don’t have any limits on what we can accomplish here.”