CULLEN’S HOME CENTER

Nearly 47 years ago, in the basement of Tim Cullen’s home, the creation of Cullen’s Home Center began. In 1976, when Tim and his wife, Kathie, moved to town, they founded Alex Insulation. Tim, a school teacher at the time, began insulating homes and buildings after school, on weekends and in the summer months. In 1988, Tim purchased a building on North Nokomis, which consisted of three small offices, storage garages and a church. At that point, he and Kathie expanded the business to Alex Insulation and Exteriors.

Shortly after, in early 1990, Tim hired his first employee, Larry Gabrielson, who is still with Cullen’s today. The next expansion, in 1991, was to include appliances and electronics and operated under a new name of Cullen’s Appliance and TV. The business continued to grow and soon after, in 1993, became Cullen’s Home Center. Most recently, in 2020, Cullen’s Furniture Gallery was introduced.After numerous remodels and additions, Cullen’s Home Center now operates on 44,000 square feet of showroom and warehouse space. It currently offers appliances, furniture, electronics, mattresses, cabinets, countertops, fireplaces, grills, windows, doors and other building products. It employs over 45 employees and works with numerous subcontractors on a daily basis.

QWho are the current owners and how long have they been in business?

ACullen’s Home Center currently is a second-generation business which includes three of Tim and Kathie’s four children, and one son-in-law – Jon Cullen, Jeff and Sherri Doherty, Shelly Rohrer and Jana Horstman. Jeff and Sherri have been involved in the business since 1998, and both Jon and Jana started working at CHC in 2006.

QAs the current owners, why was it important to you to keep the family business going?

AWe are so grateful for this community and all it has provided for us over the years. The entire Cullen family realize how amazing this community is. The amount of local support through the community and businesses is frankly unheard of. We all feel beyond blessed to work and live in this community while raising our families here. Our family has always been a very close-knit family and throughout the years has grown to appreciate how amazing it is to work together to operate a business that was founded by their father. When we all began working at CHC, we likely weren’t looking ahead 20 years and envisioning what it was going to be like to operate the entire company. But as we worked into the business and learned from two of the best coaches, we knew this was what God had planned for Cullen’s Home Center.

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QHow has the business changed over the years? Any new locations, etc.?

AIt doesn’t seem normal to us or our employees if we aren’t changing something – whether it’s a change to the structure or a change to a department due to a vendor or a supplier. As a matter of fact, we just finished up a full kitchen remodel in house for all of us at Cullen’s to use and gather in. A few years back, we sold our shares to the partners of our two other Minnesota locations. It’s been so fun to see them flourish and succeed in the communities they love as much as we do. Back in 2016, we purchased Alex Carpet One, which Sherri is currently overseeing. By doing this, we were able to move our entire flooring showroom and the flooring staff over to that location. They have doubled the showroom space at that location, which allows Sherri to carry even more product and inventory than we had when flooring was at Cullen’s. The move of the flooring department allowed for our most recent renovation at CHC, Cullen’s Furniture Gallery.

QWhat impact, do you feel, a generational business has on our community?

ABecause CHC has been a part of this community for so long, the majority of our database are previous customers. We believe we have gained trust, both from our community and customers, because of the foundation our parents established and worked so hard on maintaining. For this reason, we are able to grow and continue to find success in the second generation. And, we hope the Alexandria area realizes we aren’t going anywhere real soon. There are many businesses in our community that are second generation; we certainly aren’t the anomaly. That right there tells you how much our community and businesses support each other, because we are all still here – working and supporting each other. The Alexandria area continues to grow and we believe that many of the community businesses are to thank. People want to live in Alexandria and work for businesses who have longevity and can be trusted.

QWhat are the biggest challenges/rewards of owning a generational business?

AChallenges with any business are going to be there. We don’t think there are any greater challenges with us because we are a second-generation business. All businesses have their issues whether it be supply chain, staffing, inflation, budgets, etc. But with any challenge comes reward. Our people most definitely are our greatest reward and blessing. We truly believe we have some of the most amazing staff here at Cullen’s and Carpet One. Some of our employees have been with us for upward of 20 to 30 years, and that is a huge gift to us. We may be family by “blood,” but ALL of our employees are our family, hands down.