Northern Tool

For every sensible gift of a flannel nightgown, tie or pair of socks opened on Christmas, some merry prankster will be sneaking something edgier under the tree and into the stockings — a "Duck Dynasty" Beardhead, Roadkill Summer Sausage or perhaps Camouflage TP. At least that's the hope of the people at Burnsville, Minn.-based Northern Tool + Equipment, which also owns ­Kotula's, a catalog and online retailer with a good share of hardy, har har-type gifts. 

Burnsville, Minn.-based Northern Tool + Equipment said it's acquiring The Sportsman's Guide, a catalog supplier of outdoor goods based in South St. Paul, Minn. It's also purchasing The Golf Warehouse, an online golf equipment retailer based in Wichita, Kan. Together, the deals are worth $215 million, Northern Tool officials said Thursday, Nov. 8. The deals will transform family-owned Northern Tool and give it nearly $1.5 billion in annual sales. The deal still must be approved by antitrust officials.

By Gabrielle Mosquera Northern Tool and Equipment Co.'s U.K. call center used to ship its products based on little more than good faith. Until May 2001, the cataloger, which sells tools and equipment to consumers and businesses, had no address-verification tools in place for the U.K. shipping region. As a result, returns from incorrect addresses (along with shipping costs) began piling up. "We ship everything from tractors to work gloves," says Todd Wermerson, Northern Tool's president of information technology. "It's very expensive to ship that stuff across the U.K., and then ship it back." In fact, returns numbered so many that