David Oreck (born September 17, 1923) is an American salesman, entrepreneur, and businessman. He is the founder of the Oreck Corporation, makers of vacuum cleaners and air purifiers, and is known through his spokesman appearance in Oreck television commercials and infomercials.
"Frankly, we considered relocating to China altogether, although we discarded that option," said Tom Oreck, CEO of the vacuum manufacturing company. "Although we've always been connected to New Orleans, with all of the increased costs related to transportation, we wanted to have our manufacturing, our call center and our headquarters in close proximity."
CEO Oreck said the move will see 60 people working in Nashville and the staff in Harahan reduced from 70 to 10. That Oreck -- one of Jefferson Parish's most high-profile companies -- will no longer be described as Harahan-based represents a major blow to the hopes of municipal economic development officials, who have worked to retain Oreck for more than a decade, even as the Harahan location gradually hemorrhaged jobs to other locations.
"We made a big push to keep their back office here, but they decided to consolidate their operations in Tennessee," Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young said. "Call it another casualty of Katrina."
Shortly after the storm, Oreck relocated its manufacturing plant from Long Beach, Miss., to Cookeville, Tenn., 80 miles east of Nashville.
Dottie Stephenson, with Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission's business retention program, began working with Oreck Corp. in 1998, immediately after the company opened a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, Miss.
The plant was considered a coup for Louisiana's Gulf Coast neighbor, so much so that when then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco lured Mississippi's economic development secretary, Mike Olivier, to her administration, she announced the decision in front of Oreck's Harahan building.
In the intervening decade, Stephenson said, Jefferson Parish was aggressive about retaining Oreck. A parking ban on Plantation Road, where the company's headquarters were, was lifted when it inconvenienced the vacuum manufacturer. An incumbent worker training program implemented in 2001 offered the manufacturer 100 skilled laborers.
When Stephenson realized that the company's headquarters did not have enough room for an expanding call center, she found a facility that seemed to match Oreck's needs: The Volunteers of America building, on Causeway at the lakefront. The company instead relocated its 100 telemarketing jobs to Mississippi, part of a succession of personnel shifts and staff cuts that moved its center of gravity away from Harahan.
Oreck's move to Nashville has been a subject of dispute. Last summer, Oreck board member Jim Amos contradicted the company's CEO when he admitted that the headquarters was moving in an interview with Business TN magazine.
As late as last week, public relations personnel for the company denied the move.
"David Oreck remains in New Orleans, and the headquarters are where David Oreck is," said Laurel Blair, spokesperson for the vacuum cleaner manufacturer, referring to the company's founder and the CEO's father. "There is no story here."
But on Thursday evening, CEO Tom Oreck confirmed the relocation.
"We did not want to prematurely make an announcement, but now the decision has been finalized," Oreck said. "We just wanted to make sure that we were minimizing any kind of potential disruption to the company and to the city."
Oreck said the decision to move had been made over the course of the past six months, though preparations for relocation appeared to be under way much earlier.
Patty Joyce, the company's executive administrator, said there was a skeletal staff at what is now the company's Nashville headquarters as early as fall 2007. Tom Oreck began reporting for work in Nashville on April 14, Joyce said.
According to Nashville's property assessors, a Thomas Oreck owned a property in that area that was assessed at $933,000 and appraised at $3.7 million. The New York Times reported last June that the younger Oreck had purchased the property for $4.6 million, though he said at the time that Oreck's headquarters remained in New Orleans.
Oreck Corp. also is named on three building permits -- taken out by Complete Comfort Control Inc. and Tenant Building Group LLC -- issued between Feb. 20, 2008, and March 10, 2008, for a building in Nashville. The permits are "To renovate Suite 300 / Entire 3rd floor for Oreck."
And last month, Oreck received a grant to relocate its corporate headquarters to Nashville, according to the Nashville mayor's office. The Tennesseean, the daily newspaper in Nashville, put the amount of the grant at $750,000.
Tom Oreck said the grant had no impact on the company's decision to relocate, though it did help defray the cost of doing so.
Oreck's Plantation Road office abuts the levee in Harahan, and advertisements with David Oreck's famous face still adorn the windows. But a lot designed to hold more than 100 cars had only three on a recent weekday morning, and a large "for lease" sign urged potential renters to contact Corporate Realty.
The 250,000-square-foot building is listed as one of JEDCO's featured properties on its Web site, and Stephenson hopes to lure another major employer to the area with the promise of so much space.
And it has been more than a month since Oreck donated thousands of dollars in office furniture to the nonprofit Alliance for Affordable Energy, said Karen Wimpelberg, the Alliance's president.
"We tell people we're brought to them by Oreck," Wimpelberg said. "We have to thank them for everything we do."
The donations, CEO Oreck said, were part of a corporate citizenship model that included organizing resume-writing workshops and job fairs for New Orleans-area employees once the company decided to move.
Oreck Corporation recently signed on to sponsor the Tennessee Titans throughout the 2009 football season to help benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, according to Oreck CEO, Bill Fry.
“Starting this Sunday, Aug. 9 and running through regular game season, Jan. 3, 2010 on Tennessee Titans Radio Network, fans can select the Titan game MVP,” Fry said. “While the player with the most fan votes gets the Oreck Power Team Award, Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee receives a donation from Oreck Corporation,” Fry continued.
Oreck, manufacturer of quality cleaning solutions for a healthier home, such as advanced hypo allergenic, bagged vacuum cleaners; air purifiers and other cleaning products, is headquartered in Nashville with manufacturing and call center facilities in Cookeville.
“It makes sense for Oreck to associate with a team like the Titans, known for power, performance and speed just like the Oreck brand,” Mike Amburgey, Oreck Chief Marketing Officer, said.
Amburgey reports there are over 450 Oreck Clean Home Center retail stores coast to coast. “Oreck corporation has approximately 600 employees throughout Tennessee,” Amburgey said. “As a company, we are committed to the great state of Tennessee, its people, its causes and of course its teams,” exclaimed Amburgey.
According to Oreck: to make Titan team picks for the Oreck Power Team MVP game award, fans select from four players deemed Oreck “Power Team-worthy” from the previous game, by texting their choice to a number announced during games on Titan Radio Network. Oreck will make a donation on behalf of the game winning Oreck Power Team MVP to Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee. “Our donation helps support educational and other Club youth programs,” Fry reported.
“The award honors Oreck’s latest home cleaning technology, the Oreck XL(R) Power Team Vacuum Cleaner system,” Fry continued. “A powerful yet easy-to-use offense against dirt, dust, allergens and bacteria in the home.”
“Oreck underscores its commitment to Tennessee and the hard working people of the state with a season-long, major advertising campaign on Tennessee Titan Radio Network starting with their first Titan preseason game,” Amburgey committed. “Radio ads focus on Oreck manufacturing in Tennessee and Oreck Clean Home Centers around the State run by local people with expertise and involvement in their community,” Amburgey said.
"Frankly, we considered relocating to China altogether, although we discarded that option," said Tom Oreck, CEO of the vacuum manufacturing company. "Although we've always been connected to New Orleans, with all of the increased costs related to transportation, we wanted to have our manufacturing, our call center and our headquarters in close proximity."
CEO Oreck said the move will see 60 people working in Nashville and the staff in Harahan reduced from 70 to 10. That Oreck -- one of Jefferson Parish's most high-profile companies -- will no longer be described as Harahan-based represents a major blow to the hopes of municipal economic development officials, who have worked to retain Oreck for more than a decade, even as the Harahan location gradually hemorrhaged jobs to other locations.
"We made a big push to keep their back office here, but they decided to consolidate their operations in Tennessee," Jefferson Parish Councilman John Young said. "Call it another casualty of Katrina."
Shortly after the storm, Oreck relocated its manufacturing plant from Long Beach, Miss., to Cookeville, Tenn., 80 miles east of Nashville.
Dottie Stephenson, with Jefferson Parish Economic Development Commission's business retention program, began working with Oreck Corp. in 1998, immediately after the company opened a manufacturing plant in Long Beach, Miss.
The plant was considered a coup for Louisiana's Gulf Coast neighbor, so much so that when then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco lured Mississippi's economic development secretary, Mike Olivier, to her administration, she announced the decision in front of Oreck's Harahan building.
In the intervening decade, Stephenson said, Jefferson Parish was aggressive about retaining Oreck. A parking ban on Plantation Road, where the company's headquarters were, was lifted when it inconvenienced the vacuum manufacturer. An incumbent worker training program implemented in 2001 offered the manufacturer 100 skilled laborers.
When Stephenson realized that the company's headquarters did not have enough room for an expanding call center, she found a facility that seemed to match Oreck's needs: The Volunteers of America building, on Causeway at the lakefront. The company instead relocated its 100 telemarketing jobs to Mississippi, part of a succession of personnel shifts and staff cuts that moved its center of gravity away from Harahan.
Oreck's move to Nashville has been a subject of dispute. Last summer, Oreck board member Jim Amos contradicted the company's CEO when he admitted that the headquarters was moving in an interview with Business TN magazine.
As late as last week, public relations personnel for the company denied the move.
"David Oreck remains in New Orleans, and the headquarters are where David Oreck is," said Laurel Blair, spokesperson for the vacuum cleaner manufacturer, referring to the company's founder and the CEO's father. "There is no story here."
But on Thursday evening, CEO Tom Oreck confirmed the relocation.
"We did not want to prematurely make an announcement, but now the decision has been finalized," Oreck said. "We just wanted to make sure that we were minimizing any kind of potential disruption to the company and to the city."
Oreck said the decision to move had been made over the course of the past six months, though preparations for relocation appeared to be under way much earlier.
Patty Joyce, the company's executive administrator, said there was a skeletal staff at what is now the company's Nashville headquarters as early as fall 2007. Tom Oreck began reporting for work in Nashville on April 14, Joyce said.
According to Nashville's property assessors, a Thomas Oreck owned a property in that area that was assessed at $933,000 and appraised at $3.7 million. The New York Times reported last June that the younger Oreck had purchased the property for $4.6 million, though he said at the time that Oreck's headquarters remained in New Orleans.
Oreck Corp. also is named on three building permits -- taken out by Complete Comfort Control Inc. and Tenant Building Group LLC -- issued between Feb. 20, 2008, and March 10, 2008, for a building in Nashville. The permits are "To renovate Suite 300 / Entire 3rd floor for Oreck."
And last month, Oreck received a grant to relocate its corporate headquarters to Nashville, according to the Nashville mayor's office. The Tennesseean, the daily newspaper in Nashville, put the amount of the grant at $750,000.
Tom Oreck said the grant had no impact on the company's decision to relocate, though it did help defray the cost of doing so.
Oreck's Plantation Road office abuts the levee in Harahan, and advertisements with David Oreck's famous face still adorn the windows. But a lot designed to hold more than 100 cars had only three on a recent weekday morning, and a large "for lease" sign urged potential renters to contact Corporate Realty.
The 250,000-square-foot building is listed as one of JEDCO's featured properties on its Web site, and Stephenson hopes to lure another major employer to the area with the promise of so much space.
And it has been more than a month since Oreck donated thousands of dollars in office furniture to the nonprofit Alliance for Affordable Energy, said Karen Wimpelberg, the Alliance's president.
"We tell people we're brought to them by Oreck," Wimpelberg said. "We have to thank them for everything we do."
The donations, CEO Oreck said, were part of a corporate citizenship model that included organizing resume-writing workshops and job fairs for New Orleans-area employees once the company decided to move.
Oreck Corporation recently signed on to sponsor the Tennessee Titans throughout the 2009 football season to help benefit Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee, according to Oreck CEO, Bill Fry.
“Starting this Sunday, Aug. 9 and running through regular game season, Jan. 3, 2010 on Tennessee Titans Radio Network, fans can select the Titan game MVP,” Fry said. “While the player with the most fan votes gets the Oreck Power Team Award, Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee receives a donation from Oreck Corporation,” Fry continued.
Oreck, manufacturer of quality cleaning solutions for a healthier home, such as advanced hypo allergenic, bagged vacuum cleaners; air purifiers and other cleaning products, is headquartered in Nashville with manufacturing and call center facilities in Cookeville.
“It makes sense for Oreck to associate with a team like the Titans, known for power, performance and speed just like the Oreck brand,” Mike Amburgey, Oreck Chief Marketing Officer, said.
Amburgey reports there are over 450 Oreck Clean Home Center retail stores coast to coast. “Oreck corporation has approximately 600 employees throughout Tennessee,” Amburgey said. “As a company, we are committed to the great state of Tennessee, its people, its causes and of course its teams,” exclaimed Amburgey.
According to Oreck: to make Titan team picks for the Oreck Power Team MVP game award, fans select from four players deemed Oreck “Power Team-worthy” from the previous game, by texting their choice to a number announced during games on Titan Radio Network. Oreck will make a donation on behalf of the game winning Oreck Power Team MVP to Boys & Girls Clubs of Middle Tennessee. “Our donation helps support educational and other Club youth programs,” Fry reported.
“The award honors Oreck’s latest home cleaning technology, the Oreck XL(R) Power Team Vacuum Cleaner system,” Fry continued. “A powerful yet easy-to-use offense against dirt, dust, allergens and bacteria in the home.”
“Oreck underscores its commitment to Tennessee and the hard working people of the state with a season-long, major advertising campaign on Tennessee Titan Radio Network starting with their first Titan preseason game,” Amburgey committed. “Radio ads focus on Oreck manufacturing in Tennessee and Oreck Clean Home Centers around the State run by local people with expertise and involvement in their community,” Amburgey said.
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