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![]() "Proudly Serving the Midwest since 1955" | |
![]() A Fleet Farm store in West Bend, Wisconsin. | |
Fleet Farm | |
Formerly | Mills Fleet Farm (prior to 2018) |
Company type | Subsidiary |
Industry | Retail |
Founded | 1955 Marshfield, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Founders | Stewart Mills Sr. Stewart Mills Jr. Henry Mills II |
Headquarters | , United States |
Number of locations | 53 (As of August 2023 [update] ) |
Area served | Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota |
Key people | John Shaefer (President, CEO) [1] |
Products | Hunting and fishing equipment & licenses, small appliances, household goods, automotive goods, clothing and footwear, toys, food, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, paint, pet supplies, sporting goods, tools, and farm supplies. |
Revenue | ![]() |
Number of employees | 6,600 (2023) |
Parent | KKR |
Website | www |
Fleet Farm (formerly Mills Fleet Farm) is an American retail chain of 49 stores in Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. Headquartered in Appleton, Wisconsin, the company has a main distribution center in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, with a buying/support office and warehouse in Appleton.
The stores range in size from small hardware store formats to larger stores. They sell hunting and fishing equipment and licenses, small appliances, household goods, automotive goods, clothing and footwear, toys, food, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, paint, pet supplies, sporting goods, tools, and farm supplies. Most locations also have an auto service center, gas mart, and car wash.
On July 10, 2019, Fleet Farm announced that it had reached a deal with SECURA Insurance to purchase their current headquarters building in Appleton. Fleet Farm moved its headquarters to the former SECURA Insurance building in 2020.
Stewart C. Mills Sr. founded Mills Companies in Brainerd, Minnesota in 1922. The family later created an oil company and opened a dealership and auto parts stores. Fleet Farm was founded in 1955 by Stewart Mills Sr. and his sons Henry Mills II and Stewart Mills Jr. The first store, named Fleet Wholesale Supply, was opened in Marshfield, Wisconsin. [2]
Similarly named Blain's Farm and Fleet was also founded in 1955 by Bert and Claude Blain, friends of the Mills family. The two families agreed to use similar names and have historically operated in different territories. [3] [4]
Since 2000, most locations that have opened have the signature orange-roofed silo on the storefront. [5]
In 2016, Mills Fleet Farm was sold to KKR. [2] [6] As of July 2018, the "Mills" part of the name has been dropped, shortening the name to "Fleet Farm". In addition, Fleet Farm launched a new brand campaign and added the tagline “Built for real life”, replacing the slogan "We Love It" which debuted in 2009.
Fleet Farm carries a variety of store brands in a variety of departments. These include: Road Runner - Batteries and tires, Big Max - Trailers and automotive supplies, Field and Forest - Clothing and footwear, Fleet Boutique - Women's clothing, Dura-Built - Farm supplies, Milkhouse brand - Dairy supplies, Farm Life - Animal supplements, Sprout - Animal feed, Mills Fleet Farm - Candy and nuts, Farm Toys.
Tractor Supply Company, founded in 1938, is an American retail chain of stores that sells products for home improvement, agriculture, lawn and garden maintenance, livestock, equine and pet care for recreational farmers and ranchers, pet owners, and landowners. The company has 2,000 stores and is headquartered in Brentwood, Tennessee. It is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TSCO and is a Fortune 500 company.
Kohl's is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. It currently has 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawaii. The company was founded by Polish immigrant Maxwell Kohl, who opened a corner grocery store in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1927. It went on to become a successful chain in the local area, and in 1962 the company branched out by opening its first department store. British American Tobacco Company took a controlling interest in the company in 1972 while still managed by the Kohl Family, and in 1979, the corporation was sold to BATUS Inc. A group of investors purchased the company in 1986 from British American Tobacco and took it public in 1992.
SuperValu, Inc., was an American wholesaler and retailer of grocery products. The company, formerly headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Eden Prairie, Minnesota, had been in business since 1926. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of United Natural Foods (UNFI).
Home Hardware Stores Ltd. is an independent home improvement retailer located in Canada. Co-founded by Walter Hachborn in 1964, and headquartered in St. Jacobs, Ontario, the company has close to 1,100 stores that operate under one of four banners: Home Hardware, Home Hardware Building Centre, Home Building Centre, and Home Furniture.
Scheels is an American privately held, employee-owned and operated sporting goods and entertainment chain store headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. Scheels operates thirty-four store locations in sixteen U.S. states. Its slogan is "Gear. Passion. Sports."
Blain Supply, Inc., doing business as Blain's Farm & Fleet, is a regional chain of 45 retail stores in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Michigan. Blain's Farm & Fleet was an early adopter of "buy online, pick up at the store" in which all stores provide a drive-thru pick-up experience so online orders can be retrieved without consumers having to leave the car.
Norbys Farm Fleet is a retail chain of farm supply stores. The stores sell hunting and fishing equipment, appliances, housewares, automotive goods, apparel, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, paint, pet supplies, sporting goods, and tools and a mix of products lines in animal health, livestock feed, workwear, fashion clothing, candy & snacks, and toys.
Kwik Trip is a chain of convenience stores founded in 1965 with locations throughout Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin under the name Kwik Trip, and in Illinois, Iowa, and South Dakota under the name Kwik Star. The company also operates stores under the name Tobacco Outlet Plus, Tobacco Outlet Plus Grocery, Hearty Platter, Kwik Spirits, and Stop-N-Go. Kwik Trip, Inc. is a privately held company headquartered in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Gamble-Skogmo Inc. was a conglomerate of retail chains and other businesses that was headquartered in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Business operated or franchised by Gamble-Skogmo included Gambles hardware and auto supply stores, Woman's World and Mode O'Day clothing stores, J.M. McDonald department stores, Leath Furniture stores, Tempo and Buckeye Mart Discount Stores, Howard's Brandiscount Department Stores, Rasco Variety Stores, Sarco Outlet Stores, Toy World, Rasco-Tempo, Red Owl Grocery, Snyder Drug and the Aldens mail-order company. In Canada, retail operations consisted of Macleods Hardware, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Stedmans Department Stores, based in Toronto, Ontario. Gamble-Skogmo carried a line of home appliances, including radios, televisions, refrigerators, and freezers, under the Coronado brand name.
Red Owl was a grocery store chain in the United States, headquartered in Hopkins, Minnesota. Founded in 1922, it was initially owned and operated by a private investment firm affiliated with General Mills, and purchased in 1968 by Gamble-Skogmo.
Theisen's is a regional retail chain of 21 stores in Iowa and 3 stores in Wisconsin. The company headquarters are in Dubuque, Iowa. Theisen's stores sell hunting and fishing equipment, appliances, houseware, automotive goods, apparel, household hardware, lawn and garden supplies, paint, pet supplies, sporting goods, farm and ranch supplies, livestock feed, and tools.
Home of Economy is a chain of retail stores with eight locations in North Dakota: Grand Forks, Grafton, Devils Lake, Minot, Williston, Jamestown, Watford City and Rugby. Home of Economy sells a variety of goods: clothing, work wear, home furniture, housewares, automotive goods, tools, farm supplies, hardware, lawn and garden supplies, paint, pet supplies, hunting and fishing equipment, and sporting goods.
Atwoods Ranch & Home is a farm and ranch supply store chain based in Enid, Oklahoma, United States. Atwoods has 75 stores in five states: Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. Most of its stores are located in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arkansas. In addition to farm and ranch supplies, Atwoods stores sell clothing, lawn and garden items, tools, hardware, automotive supplies, sporting goods, pet supplies, firearms, and seasonal items.
Off-price is a trading format based on discount pricing. Off-price retailers are independent of manufacturers and buy large volumes of branded goods directly from them. The off-price retail model relies on the purchase of over-produced, or excess, branded goods at a lower price, thus being able to sell to consumers at a discount compared to other stores which purchased an initial run. Among the largest retailers of this type are TJX Companies and Ross Stores. The model is more common in countries that import fashion-oriented or household goods, as the discount role in producer countries is usually filled by factory outlets or small-scale open-air marketplaces.
Winmark Corporation is an American franchisor of five retail businesses that specialize in buying and selling used goods. The company is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Winmark was founded in 1988 as Play It Again Sports Franchise Corporation by Ron Olson and Jeffrey Dahlberg after they purchased the Play It Again Sports franchise rights from Martha Morris. They renamed the company to Grow Biz International Inc. in June 1993. Grow Biz went public in August 1993. In 2000, John Morgan replaced Dahlberg as CEO and renamed the company to Winmark in 2001. Morgan rescued Winmark from the verge of bankruptcy by selling financially failing franchise concepts and stores and replacing the management team. The company's strategy was to move from owning stores itself to having franchisees own all the stores.
The retail format influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are exchanged. In some parts of the world, the retail sector is still dominated by small family-run stores, but large retail chains are increasingly dominating the sector, because they can exert considerable buying power and pass on the savings in the form of lower prices. Many of these large retail chains also produce their own private labels which compete alongside manufacturer brands. Considerable consolidation of retail stores has changed the retail landscape, transferring power away from wholesalers and into the hands of the large retail chains.
Retailing in New Zealand is an important sector in the economy of New Zealand, as a channel for a large proportion of household spending and international visitor spending.