SIOUX CITY | With its sales steadily growing and geographic footprint rapidly expanding, Bomgaars has long since outgrown its primary warehouse in Sioux City.
That's why the retailer is adding 150,000 square feet of warehouse and distribution space, nearly doubling the size of its facility at 1805 Zenith Drive, near the intersection with Interstate 29.
The $17 million project, which also includes renovating the corporate offices, is the final stages of construction, with completion expected in early June.
The extra space will solve an immediate storage crunch, consolidate all the warehouse and distribution functions at a single site in Sioux City, and allow Bomgaars to serve as many as 125 stores, he said.
The existing 200,000-square-foot warehouse can only accommodate 70 stores. The retail chain recently surpassed that number with its recent acquisitions of 12 former ALCO stores in four western states.
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"We don't have have the space to store multiple truck loads of the same product in this building," said Torrey Wingert, vice president and chief financial officer for the Sioux City-based chain.
The company has resorted to temporarily storing some merchandise, after it arrives in Sioux City, at the former Soo Tools factory along Floyd Boulevard.
"With everything under one roof, there will no longer be a need to shuttle stuff across town four or five times a day," Wingert said.
Consolidating warehouse functions at a single site was one of the main reasons the company relocated to the Zenith Drive site -- a one-time Zenith TV factory -- in 2006. But the retailer's continual expansion forced the company to keep storing some products in its former warehouse, the Battery Building at 323 Water St. From 1973 to 2006, the historic downtown structure at Third and Water streets also housed the company's corporate offices.
Three years ago, the Bomgaars family sold the Battery to Sioux City Entertainment, the developer of the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City, which opened in August.
After that, Bomgaars was forced to bring the former Soo Tools facility out of mouthballs.
The new warehouse addition at the Zenith Drive site will feature 35-foot-tall ceilings, compared to 17 feet in the existing warehouse. The added height will allow the company to stack certain products on shelving from floor to ceiling.
Automated racking equipment also will create greater efficiencies.
The design includes a second-level mezannine storage area for smaller items, such as gloves and caps and parts and small tools. A conveyer system will deliver the merchandise directly to the shipping area, reducing much of the manual work now required to complete that task.
When Bomgaars announced the expansion in 2013, they projected they would retain 177 jobs and create at least 15 new positions.
The company has already added 17 jobs, bringing the warehouse and distribution staff to 124. Another 5 to 10 jobs are expected to be added in the next 12 to 18 months.
Counting the corporate staff of about 70, the total workforce at the Zenith Drive site is now around 200, he said.
In the last decade, Bomgaars' network of farm and ranch stores has exploded from 15 in Iowa and the neighboring states of Nebraska, Minnesota and South Dakota, to 77 locations in a sprawling seven-state territory that also now includes the states of Colorado, Wyoming and, most recently, Idaho.
Without a larger warehouse, the company simply could not have gone ahead with its most recent additions, Wingert said.
In late January, the company announced it had taken possession of 12 former ALCO stores, as part of ALCO's liquidation of its chain after filing for bankruptcy.
In eight of the cities -- Chamberlain, S.D., Imperial, Neb., Preston and Soda Springs, Idaho; and Rawlings, Lander, Pinedale and Diamondville, Wyo., Bomgaars is opening stores for the first time. In the other four cities -- West Point, Ainsworth, Ogallala and Gordon Neb., the retailer is moving its existing stores into larger ex-ALCO buildings.
Wingert said the company is aiming to enlarge of its stores to a minimum of 20,000 square feet. Depending on the market, some outlets are considerably larger than that.
"With the demand for our products and to properly display them, we just need more square footage," he said.
In the last year, Bomgaars relocated its stores in Storm Lake, Iowa, Canton, S.D., Humboldt, Iowa, to larger quarters. The company also opened its first store in Glenwood, Iowa.
A half dozen more expansions are planned for this next year, he said. The projects include enlarging the Blair, Neb. store from 17,000 to 30,000, the Norfolk, Neb. location from 40,000 to 50,000 square feet, and the Onawa, Iowa, outlet from 15,000 to 26,000 square feet.
