MARYLAND HEIGHTS, Mo. — A Lenexa, Kansas-based hardware retailer is expanding its St. Louis-area presence with the purchase of a Maryland Heights hardware store.
Westlake Ace Hardware, a subsidiary of Ace Hardware Corp., is buying Brandt & Sons Ace Hardware at 12634 Dorsett Road in Maryland Heights. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Westlake said last week it expects the acquisition of the 14,500-square-foot store to be completed July 27.
Westlake, which has 138 stores companywide, already operates two in the St. Louis area: at 9065 Watson Road in Crestwood and at 8740 Manchester Road in Brentwood.
Westlake said that under its ownership, the Brandt & Sons store will keep its current management and employees, as well as much of its current product mix.
“We are excited to expand in the St. Louis area and continuing Brandt & Sons outstanding tradition of customer service," Joe Jeffries, president and CEO of Westlake Ace Hardware, said in a statement.
Brandt & Sons Ace Hardware, led by current owner Jeff Brandt, opened in 2010. He also owns the R.B. Brandt & Sons feed dealership in Ownesville, Missouri. The family business began with Brandt & sons Purina feed store founded in Rosebud, Missouri, by Ray Brandt in 1950.
"Though I will miss our employees – all of whom I consider a part of my family – and customers, the fact that Westlake Ace Hardware shares our values of community support, reliable and helpful advice, and treating employees like family makes the decision to hand over the reins to them easier," Jeff Brandt said in a statement.
Westlake Ace has been growing through acquisitions. This week, it announced plans to build a new store in its hometown of Lenexa. It acquired North Bend Ace Hardware in North Bend, Washington, at the end of March, adding to its 2018 purchase of the five-store Denny Co. retail hardware chain in coastal southwest Washington. Westlake also acquired seven stores from Buikema's Ace Hardware in Illinois in January 2018.
Click here for the full story.
More from the Business Journal
- Coronavirus poses new math for St. Louis restaurants that bet big before pandemic
- St. Louis T-shirt shop finds salvation in the city flag
- A tomato farmer, with restaurant customers vanishing, sows unlikely opportunity during pandemic
- Bayer reportedly reaches deal to settle up to 85,000 Roundup suits
- At Belleville's Skyview Drive-In, 'the virus has been a boon for business'
