Big Flats, NY Wayfair held a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Tuesday October 30th to celebrate its new operations center at 326 Daniel Zenker Dr.

Since opening in July, this office has seen faster growth than any of the company’s other sales and service offices around the country, currently at 250 employees.

Co-founder Steve Conine spoke during the ceremony, discussing his roots in the area, as his parents grew up in Prattsburgh, and he and co-founder Niraj Shah are graduates of Cornell in Ithaca. Conine said, “We always say it’s important to enjoy the people you work with and we have worked to build an environment that fosters that culture.” Conine also focused on the Wayfair story, which started in he and Shah’s senior year at Cornell, becoming CSN Stores in 2002.

Originally, the business was built on the power of Google SEO, buying up domains that covered all areas of furniture and décor, including racksandstands.com and everycoffeetable.com. In 2012, they consolidated their hundreds of domains into Wayfair, and have been growing ever since. The company employs almost 10,000 employees around the globe.

Wayfair vice president of sales & service Liz Graham was also in attendance and spoke at the ribbon-cutting, discussing the positive reception Wayfair has received thus far in Chemung County, as the region was identified for the strong set of talent. “This has been a terrific place to grow a team, and we are excited to be here.”

The office, with its open floor plan, promotes a collaborative and transparent culture, and the employees in Big Flats were visibly excited to host the co-founder, expressing their gratitude and excitement to be a part of the growing team.

Conine also discussed the importance of loving what you do and pleasing the customer. “At Wayfair, we are focused on the customer experience, and this office is just one of the ways we aim to strengthen our relationship with the consumer.”