Ferguson is relocating its national sales center to Hampton

Newport News-based plumbing distributor Ferguson is relocating its national sales center to the Hampton Roads Center in Hampton.

The move could bring as many as 350 jobs to Hampton in the next three years, city officials said.

Ferguson also plans to build a new distribution center in Coxsackie, N.Y., and has leased property for a regional distribution hub in Secaucus, N.J.

The two facilities, which will support the company’s metro New York and Northeast branches, will have almost 1 million square feet of warehouse space.

In a statement, Ferguson CEO Frank Roach, said the company's national sales center had outgrown its current space in Newport News. The center provides assistance to customers placing orders or looking for product information.

The relocated sales center – with 144 employees currently – is scheduleded to open sometime this fall.

Company officials expect to hire 79 new employees in the next 12 months and another 92 in 2015.

The current sales center, which is next to the company headquarters, will be used for other business needs.

The new 460,000-square-foot distribution center in Coxsackie, about 100 miles north of New York City, will create 95 jobs. Groundbreaking is scheduled for mid-August with completion expected in summer 2015.

The Secaucus shipping hub involves 450,000 square feet of warehouse space at the site of the former Panasonic headquarters in the Harmon Cove district of the Meadowlands.

Renovations are currently underway with opening expected in the first quarter of 2015.

In recent months, Ferguson has made several acquisitions in New York and New Jersey including The Davidson Group, Davis & Warshow and Karl’s Appliance.

Before the acquisitions, the company already had more than 100 locations in the Northeast.

Founded in 1953, Ferguson is the nation’s largest wholesale distributor of residential and commercial plumbing supplies.

The company has about 19,000 employees and a distribution network with approximately 1,350 locations.