By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Brad Kellum and Charli Gorman are happy to bring Buff City Soap to Millington. Buff City Soap Millington employee makes ingredients to create a fresh bar of soap. Buff City Soap Millington owner Charli Gorman, center, poses with her staff and Buff City creator Brad Kellum.
The demands were levering up throughout Millington for a Buff City Soap.
Then the space at 8570 Highway 51 North Suite 101 became available at the Shoppes at Millington Farms, creating an opportunity for the decorative, artisan soaps to find a home in Flag City.
“This community has been phenomenal,” Buff City Soap Millington Owner Charlie Gorman said. “The support has been incredible and we’re just tickled to death to be here.
“Millington was the 19th location,” she added. “We have 21 locations total with a couple hundred in the pipeline.”
On April 27 the Millington location opened, and Friday was the city’s official welcome to Buff City Soap with the Millington Area Chamber of Commerce hosting a ribbon cutting.
With several Millington dignitaries on hand, some guest reminisced with Gorman about her days as an All-State pitcher for the Brighton Lady Cardinals in the early 2000s. Other got a chance to meet Buff City Soap CEO Brad Kellum.
“It started in 2013, and Bartlett was the original location,” Gorman said. “Brad Kellum, our CEO, started it in his garage. Then it has just grown significantly from there.
“I own the one in Covington and we had a lot of people driving to either the Bartlett location or the Covington location,” she added. “We recognized there is a market here in Millington for Buff City Soaps.”
Buff City Soaps are artisan soaps.
The business also offers other products to soothe, moisturize and condition skin with coconut, palm and olive oils. Walking into the new Millington location, an aroma of various scents greets you.
The plant-based ingredients are rosemary, lavender and mint.
“It’s the perfect spot,” Gorman said of the location next to Sprint and Huey’s. “We’re a 100 percent plant-bases soap company. We offer soaps, bath bombs, body butter, scrubs, laundry soap and shower oils. Anything you put on your body, we make it. The cool thing is we make it right here in the store, right in front of you.”
Gorman said once a customer uses Buff City Soaps they will feel the difference from traditional products.
“When you look at a commercial soap product with all the chemicals, that are not ideal for your skin,” she said. “We offer a plant-based alternative for your skin. We try to give the best customer service here ever. We want you to live here with great soap and a great customer service experience, too.”
Gorman’s other locations are at 102 E. Court Square in Covington and 216 South Mill Ave. in Dyersburg. The Bartlett Buff City Soap is at 3000 Kirby Whitten Road, No. 102.
The Millington location is at 8570 Highway 51 North, and for more information call (901) 317-8056 and visit buffcitysoap.com
“The support here has been great,” Gorman concluded. “Millington has got something here very, very special here. They say all the time, ‘One Millington.’ And we have experienced that. They have welcomed us with open arms and we’re so glad to be here.”
