Menards is a chain of home improvement centers in the Midwestern United States.
The privately held company, headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin,
has approximately 285 stores in 14 states: Ohio, Michigan, Indiana,
Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Kansas, South
Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Kentucky. It is the third largest home
improvement chain in the United States, behind The Home Depot and Lowe's.
Company history In 1959, John Menard, Jr. began building
post-frame buildings to finance his college education. By the end of 1959,
Menard found it necessary to hire extra crews, and to purchase more equipment to
keep up with demand. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–Eau
Claire in 1962, Menard purchased land in Eau Claire and built an office and shop.
The company was founded in 1960 and incorporated in 1962.
In 2007, Menards opened their third and fourth distribution centers in Holiday
City, Ohio, and Shelby, Iowa, which are 669,000 square feet and 735,000 square
feet, respectively. Store structure
In 2007, the 240,000 sq ft and larger Menards stores began selling groceries.
Advertising Menards commercials are accompanied with
banjo music played by Gary Shaw of Wisconsin.
Industry ranking In 2013, Menard, Inc., was ranked 43rd
on Forbes’ list of "America's Largest Private Companies", with an estimated
revenue of USD$8.3 billion. Controversies
Menards has been involved in a number of incidents concerning environmental
regulations, including: Wisconsin DNR officials have cited
Menards at least 13 times since 1976 for ignoring or violating state regulations
related to air and water pollution and hazardous waste.
In 1994, Wisconsin obtained a civil judgment against Menards for the
unlicensed transportation and disposal of ash produced by incinerating
"CCA"-treated lumber. Wood treated with CCA contains chromium, copper, and
arsenic – both chromium VI and arsenic are categorized by the US EPA as
carcinogens. It is considered hazardous waste and requires proper disposal in a
licensed landfill. The company was fined $160,000.
In 1997, John Menard was found using his personal pickup truck to haul plastic
bags of chromium and arsenic-laden wood ash to his home for disposal with his
household trash. Menard pleaded no contest to felony and misdemeanor
charges involving records violations, unlawful transportation, and improper
disposal of hazardous waste. Menard and his company were fined $1.7 million for
21 violations. In 2003, the Minnesota attorney general
charged that Menards manufactured and sold arsenic-tainted mulch in packaging
labeled “ideal for playgrounds and for animal bedding.” Warning labels from the
CCA-treated wood were found in the mulch. The EPA recommends that
CCA-treated wood not be converted into mulch. As of 2008 the case was still
pending. In 2005, Menards agreed to a $2 million
fine after Wisconsin DNR officials found a floor drain in a company shop that
they believed was used to dump paint, solvents, oil and other waste into a
lagoon that fed into a tributary of the Chippewa River. The sanction broke the
previous record fine of $1.7 million set by Menard in 1997.
In 2006, the construction of a $112 million warehouse became a campaign
issue in the Wisconsin governor’s race. The warehouse was to be erected by
filling in a 0.6-acre bean field the DNR considered a seasonal wetland used by
migrating tundra swans. Menards offered to build a wetland more than twice its
size as a replacement, but was rejected by Scott Humrickhouse, a DNR regional
director. Humrickhouse said that solution could be used “only when every
alternative for saving the original wetland was exhausted.” The increasingly
heated dispute got considerable media coverage, with a DNR warden calling
Menards’ general counsel a “legal bitch” and the company threatening to move jobs
out of Wisconsin. Tempers seemed to cool after Gov. Jim Doyle arranged $4.2
million in state aid to help the company expand its Eau Claire manufacturing
headquarters. Menard had previously contributed $20,000 to Doyle’s campaign.
In 2006, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an
administrative order against Menards for damaging a stream in Sioux Falls, South
Dakota, that ran through its property by placing a 66-inch storm sewer pipe on
the stream for 1,350 linear feet and filling over top soil.
References External links
Official website Menard Inc. website
Menards Real Estate Menards Racing
Team Menard After 2 years of talks, work begins at
Menards complex - Toledo Blade article