Ridgeland, Miss. — Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City is opening a 12th location in a former Viking Cooking School here.
The Mississippi-based A/V, majap and bedding chain will convert the former Viking Range cooking classroom into a new-format showroom for white-goods dubbed Cowboy’s Kitchens.
The independent dealer said it will bring additional brands to the location and will maintain the live cooking areas, which will be made available for special events.
“Being a family-owned Mississippi company for over 61 years, it just made sense to take over the Viking Cooking School space and to add more appliance vendors,” said CEO Conn Maloney.
The retailer noted that Viking, based in Greenwood, Miss., is a local company, and that the chain’s in-store Viking shops have been “highly successful,” posting consecutive monthly sales gains.
Viking, a maker of premium cooking products, franchises 10 independently owned and operated cooking schools across the country, including one near its corporate headquarters in Greenwood. The vendor was acquired in January by foodservice equipment maker The Middleby Corp. for $380 million.
Cowboy Maloney’s, a member of the NATM buying group, will hold a sale at the cooking school to clear out some existing inventory, and plans to complete construction of the new Cowboy’s Kitchens showroom by mid-summer.
