The company, based in Eau Claire, will be sending 800 jobs to its new manufacturing and distribution warehouses in Iowa and Ohio after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rejected the company's proposed 750,000 square foot warehouse near Eau Claire wetlands.,”
Home improvement retailer Menards has announced it will outsource jobs from Wisconsin, raising concerns by some that the state is losing too much business to other states.
The company, based in Eau Claire, will be sending 800 jobs to its new manufacturing and distribution warehouses in Iowa and Ohio after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources rejected the company's proposed 750,000 square foot warehouse near Eau Claire wetlands. Construction on the two out-of-state projects began earlier this year.
Menards, which is headquartered in Eau Claire, has fought with the DNR over the wetlands for the past three years, said company spokesperson Jeff Abbott by e-mail.
Without the DNR's approval of the project, Menards in the meantime has sent 100 jobs to a plant in Plano, Ill., and 85 jobs to Belgrade, Minn. Abbott said those jobs were intended for the Eau Claire building.
In total, the Eau Claire facility would have had a minimum of 900 new jobs, Abbott said.
"Because we are an expanding company, this figure would have likely grown to 1,400 during the next eight to 10 years," he said.
Menards is also planning to take 300 to 400 additional jobs with them to the new warehouses in Shelby, Iowa and Holiday City, Ohio. The company projects there will be 700 to 800 jobs at each location in three years.
While agreeing that Wisconsin is a good state in which to do business, Abbott said, "It's been much easier to work with other states' DNRs than Wisconsin's DNR."
Menards and the state are currently working on a $3.7 million financial aid package that would assist in the expansion of the company's Eau Claire headquarters, said Tony Hozeny, Department of Commerce communications director. The financial assistance is for the headquarters and not for building on the wetlands, Hozeny said.
Despite the DNR's rejection of the Eau Claire expansion, Menards is not entirely upset with the state.
"Gov. Doyle has worked very well with Menards, helping us grow over the years," Abbott said.
Menards CEO John Menard released a statement on his company's expansion via Doyle's office. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that John Menard has contributed $20,000 to Doyle since 1999.
Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay), Doyle's gubernatorial challenger, said Doyle should have done more to ensure that the Menards jobs stay in Wisconsin.
"There is simply no excuse for Gov. Doyle to not have found a way to both protect the environment and allow the Menards project to go forward," Green said in a press release. "Honoring our conservation heritage and growing our economy can be done at the same time
