Midwestern home improvement chain Menards could be expanding to Florida
By Ashley Gurbal Kritzer
Tampa Bay Business Journal
Published: May 4, 2023

A Midwestern home improvement chain with a cult following could be coming to Florida.

Menards, based in Wisconsin, paid $10.3 million for a 56,040-square-foot warehouse on 30 acres in Myakka City in early April, property records show. The retailer has filed plans for the property with Manatee County that detail a roof truss manufacturing facility.

The company is hiring for several positions in Myakka City, including an industrial mechanic, a manufacturing manager trainee, a bookkeeper and a sales and design position, according to LinkedIn posts from early May.

Representatives from Menards were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Menards does not have retail locations in Florida. It has 300 stores throughout the Midwest, in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

Menards sells roof trusses in its retail stores. It is unlikely that it would locate a manufacturing facility in Florida without future plans for retail stores.

The Florida peninsula is a unique challenge for logistics within the Southeastern U.S.; most of Florida's big fulfillment centers serve stores and customers within the state. The recent boom in manufacturing and distribution facilities here is more of a testament to the population growth than the state's transportation network.