Coldwater Creek Booming; Looking For Qualified Workers

Dennis Pence has a problem.

Coldwater Creek, his Sandpoint-based catalog company, is growing so fast the co-founder is looking outside his traditional North Idaho hiring base for people in the Spokane area.

As Coldwater Creek ramps up for its profitable Christmas season, a total of 1,700 jobs will create an $18.9 million payroll. The challenge Pence faces is finding enough qualified people to fill those positions. Even with a benefit package he considers to be the equal of any urban employer, his 13-year-old mail-order firm is pressed to find candidates who meet company criteria.

To broaden the field, Coldwater Creek has placed a “hiring kiosk” in the Spokane Valley Mall as a magnet for potential employees. The hoped-for result is a higher percentage of qualified applicants, said Pence, who hired only about 20 percent of the 2,800 people who came looking for work in his latest hiring blitz.

Based on growth rates that have Wall Street analysts giving Coldwater stock the nod, the company could be locked into the hiring mode for some time to come.

That pull may have to last for the long term, since Coldwater Creek has opened new retail outlets in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Seaside, Ore., and plans to build a $30 million East Coast distribution center in West Virginia by early 1999.

For more on this fast-growing company, be sure to check out Sunday’s business section in The Spokesman-Review.

, DataTimes