Company History

Designing your websites for over 140 years

In 1870, Fergus Kelly and Gunter White opened the first Kelly White Design Website and Sundries Emporium in Wyandotte, MI, with little more than a nickel, a rusty tin can and a dream. Not surprisingly, the walk-up storefront offered no website or graphic design, and only limited sundries, but Fergus and Gunter were confident it would succeed.

They were right. At the close of its 2011 fiscal year, Kelly White Design operated 863 mall-based retail stores, most with co-located Kelly White Design Auto Centers, and an additional 1,200 retail locations including bulk food outlets, discotheques, and an orange grove somewhere outside of Tavares, FL as well as a thriving network of Kelly White Design To Go franchise locations spanning the globe.

With a current budget of $1.18 and a pop can deposit slip worth $4.60, Kelly White Design has made over one hundred-fold its start-up costs! We at Kelly White Design are proud to say, “That’s something the shareholders can take to the bank!”

. . . . no, just kidding. Actually Kelly White Design will be celebrating its ten-year anniversary this February (Ten Years?  Ten Years!  I know! It doesn’t seem that long ago . . .) Kelly White, owner and designer, has over eleven years of graphic and web design experience, but Kelly White Design has not been open since 1870. There is no orange grove or pop can deposit slip. Everything about the history was made up. Except the photographs. And the part about the budget. And Gunter.