2007 Minnesota Business Hall of Fame

Not that everything Northern sells is strictly practical. It prides itself on hunting down unusual gadgets, from the useful (a socket wrench with a light for working in tight, unlit spaces) to the playful (how about a remote-control car that transports pop and beer?). But all of Northern’s products are presented in an intentionally bare-bones retail environment.

“You want a little bit of a sawdust-on-the-floor feeling,” Kotula says. “A guy can come in with his boots on. If you had your construction clothes on, would you go shop at Kohl’s? I want the guy who’s coming in with his pickup—he might have fed his cows an hour ago, or he just mowed 14 lawns on a riding lawn mower—but still can come in there, maybe he’s got a little mud on his boots, and feel like he’s at home.” Home Depot–type stores, Kotula adds, “have gotten more homey. They want to sell you more wallpaper, more rugs, more drapes, plants, stuff like that.”

Though Northern is adding six to eight stores a year, it still mails out 70 million catalogs annually (50 percent of sales) and continues to do a brisk business on line (20 percent), where it’s also created a guy’s domain. “An anniversary without flowers—now that’s a reason to celebrate,” says a banner ad for the 26th anniversary sale. And on a page of welding equipment, this advice: “If you have to bond, do it to alloys.”

Given its niche, Northern Tool will never be as big as Target or Best Buy. That’s the way Kotula prefers it. “We’ll grow at our own pace,” he says, expanding into new regions only when there’s a cost-effective distribution system in place.

Don’t ask Kotula and Northern to change their modus operandi (if that’s not too fancy a phrase): “We try to stay focused on our type of customer, instead of trying to please everybody,” he says.

> Watch video from the 2007 Hall of Fame gala.