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Menards
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Menards is a chain of home improvement stores in the Midwestern United States.
This privately held franchise is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The company has 245 stores in 12 states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota,North Dakota and Wyoming. A June 2008 revision to the corporate intranet hints at possible expansion into Montana. The 250th store is expected to open in mid to late 2009.
Midwest Manufacturing is a "sister" company of the Menards stores and manufactures many building and home improvement products sold in the stores.
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Menards is a chain of home improvement stores in the Midwestern United States.
This privately held franchise is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The company has 245 stores in 12 states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota,North Dakota and Wyoming. A June 2008 revision to the corporate intranet hints at possible expansion into Montana. The 250th store is expected to open in mid to late 2009.
Midwest Manufacturing is a "sister" company of the Menards stores and manufactures many building and home improvement products sold in the stores. MasterCraft and Ultradeck are some of the brand names used by Midwest Manufacturing.
While the privately held company does not release sales figures, it is believed to be the third largest home center chain in the United States behind The Home Depot and Lowe's. The trade publication Home Channel News estimated 2007 sales at $8 billion.
Company history
In 1959, John Menard, Jr. began building post-frame buildings to finance his college education. By 1959, Menard found it necessary to hire extra crews, and to purchase more equipment to keep up with demand. After graduating from college in 1962, Menard purchased land in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and built an office and shop. Menards was founded at this time in 1962.
When post-frame building customers often inquired about the possibility of purchasing lumber and other products, Menard opened the first Menards Cashway Lumber.
In 1969, Menard began adding manufacturing plants on the Eau Claire site, including trusses, treated lumber, boards, pre-hung doors, steel and nails. A distribution center was also added.
Menards headquarters in Eau Claire was seriously damaged by the Western Wisconsin Derecho of July 15, 1980.
In 1994, Menards sold the post-frame building division.
In 1998, another distribution center was opened in Plano, Illinois.
In 2005, Menards opened Menards Online Collections, an eCommerce website.
In 2007, two more distribution centers were opened in Holiday City, Ohio and Shelby, Iowa. The Holiday City, Ohio, complex is and the Shelby, Iowa, complex is .
Industry ranking
Based on sales, Menards is the third-largest home improvement franchise in the United States behind Home Depot and Lowe's. In 2006, Menard Inc. ranked on Forbes' list of
Advertising
For many years, Menards' television commercials featured free-lance announcer Ray Szmanda, who became a cult figure as "the Menards Guy." In the late '90s, a young, hands-on woman temporarily took the role in Szmanda's absence. Recent commercials, however, feature Bo Landry in his place; although, a cartoon version of "the Menards Guy" still appears in Menards' print ads and on some in-store signage. The commercials end with the well-known jingle, "." (During the Christmas shopping season the jingle changes to "Warm seasons greetings to you all from Menards!") A reference was made to this jingle on Mystery Science Theater 3000, in the "Giant Spider Invasion" episode. Mike blurts out "It's a giant spider invasion of savings at Menards!!".
Menards commercials are also accompanied with banjo music played by Gary Shaw of Wisconsin. In reference to creating the musical piece, Shaw said, "I just started playing on it and they said, 'That's perfect; that's exactly what we need.' Took me a half an hour. I got $50 for a one-time fee, and I've had to listen to that commercial every day for 20 years."
Store structure
Every Menards store shares a common team structure. The store is primarily divided by departments: Building Materials, Hardware, Electrical, Millwork, Wall Coverings, Plumbing and Housewares, Floor Coverings, and Cabinets and Appliances. Other areas of the store team include the Front End (cashiers, office functions, carryouts, etcetera) and the Receiving crew (responsible for the lumber yard, shipments between the store and the distributions centers, and other delivery and merchandise logistics). In a typical store there is a store manager, two assistant managers, a manager for each department, and a varying number of sales floor team members depending upon the volume of guests typical at that store. Depending on store volume, some departments are combined and/or have only one assistant manager.
Menards stores are divided by size into categories based on store size and product range from P1 (Prototype size 1) to P5 (prototype size 5), as well as Hardware Plus (smaller than P1 with less building materials selections) and non-prototype (usually stores that have moved into pre-existing locations or locations where large prototype stores will not fit, such as the 2-story stores).
Recently, most of the larger (240,000 sq ft and larger) Menards stores began selling groceries.
In March 2005, Menards opened the first 2-story, . Menards Mega Store in St. Paul, Minnesota. It followed in November of 2006 with another 2-story store in Hodgkins, Illinois.
Brands
As with large retailers across North America, Menards also owns and exclusively sells certain brands. Some of the brands found at the Menards stores are:
As of 2008, Menards manufacturers its own concrete patio blocks.
Menards offers customers about 30,000 products in stock and more through a Special Order Service.
Racing interests
Founder John Menard, Jr. is also active in auto racing, having started Team Menard which raced at the Indy 500. Menards also sponsors drivers in many leagues, it has had its best success come with it's Team Menards Indy 500 efforts in 1994, 1995, and 1996. It's most recent "success" has been becoming affiliated with Dale Earnhardt, Jr., since associating with Earnhardt in 2004. Since the affiliation with DEI, most of Earnhardt's Busch Series wins have been in Menards-liveried cars. Following Earnhardt's move to Hendrick Motorsports, the Menards logo is only found on the number 15 of Paul Menard, John Jr.'s son. In 2009, Menard will move to Yates Racing and be on the #98 car.
In addition, a go-kart race track is located on the corporate campus.
Family-run business
John Menard Jr.'s brother Larry served as Menards Operations Manager for 40 years. Larry's son Charlie (actually named Larry as well, born 1973) was the COO until October 2007. He now runs the Eau Claire Distribution center. John Menard, III ("J.R." Menard) is the Corporate Treasurer.
John's brother, Larry Menard, retired January 1, 2009 as Operations Manager. The longtime Assistant Operations Manager, Dennis Dixon, replaced him.
Sources
- Company history from Menard Team Member Handbook.
- Gary Shaw quote from an 10/15/06 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article by Rick Romell.
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External links
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