Buyer plans to reopen Flandreau lumber, hardware store

Tyler Lumber purchases J&K Building Cent

Posted

Brenda Wade Schmidt
Enterprise

A Tyler, Minn., business is buying J&K Building Center with plans to reopen it as a full-service lumberyard and hardware store.
Tyler Lumber, which is a dividend-paying cooperative, will name the business Flandreau Building Center, a subsidiary of Tyler Lumber. The goal is to have the store open as the new business on Dec. 1, said Lonnie Lambertus Sr., general manager.
“The board and I felt like it was a good location,” he said. “After looking at the finances, we made the decision to purchase it.”
The store, which will be a Do-It Best hardware affiliate, will be similar to the store run by current owners Jim and Kim Amdahl. It will have four employees.

“There’s maybe a few changes but not a lot,” Lambertus said.
In the meantime, the Amdahls are in the middle of a six-week going-out-of business sale that continues through mid-October. Jim Amdahl, 68, has managed and owned the store for 36 years, but needs back surgery and said he isn’t able to continue in the business. If surgery goes well, he said he will look for other work because he is not ready to retire.
Amdahl said he didn’t want to see the doors to his business close permanently and is glad a buyer came forward and the deal worked.
“It’s super,” he said. “I was just really happy that they’re going to operate this thing. It’ll be a hardware store and a lumberyard again. It’s not just going to be one or the other.”
Flandreau residents were concerned that the loss of the retail business would leave a void and would mean people would have to drive out of town to shop for some items.
Lambertus said the building center will serve contractors and will deliver to construction sites, offering that local convenience builders are looking for.
“I’m just going to run it the way I do my business here,” he said. “I’m hoping that I can satisfy the needs, and I want to satisfy the needs for the community over there.”
Tyler Lumber, which is 35 miles away, has been open since 1903 and serves a large area, including some jobs in Sioux Falls, Iowa and close to the Twin Cities. Lambertus has been with the company 28 years, and initially, he will work at the Flandreau store. “To get it started, I’m going to be jockeying back and forth until the local manager I feel has a good grasp of things.”
Tyler Lumber is member-owned, and Flandreau customers will be able to earn a share of stock in the business, along with annual dividends, Lambertus said.
The process works like this: The store keeps track of how much customers spend, and at the end of the year, the board decides the percentage of the dividend amount.
“After you’ve earned the first $25 you will have a share in the business,” he said. “After you earn a share, the rest of it will go to you.” The more business a person does, the more dollars they will receive in dividends.
While the business is in transition before reopening as Flandreau Building Center, customers who need supplies can call Tyler Lumber at 507-828-7075.