Northern Tool + Equipment

Northern Tool + Equipment has seen sales grow 8 to 10 percent over the past five years, but it has slowed expansion. With its newly designed prototype store open in Minnetonka, the company intends to get back on its growth track when the economy recovers. The company plans to open two new stores in 2009.

Founded: 1980 by Don Kotula, who still owns the company with his two sons

Headquarters: Burnsville

Employees: 2,000

Annual sales: Nearly $1 billion

Catalog: About 55 percent of revenue

EXISTING LOCATIONS:

Florida: 10

Minnesota: 9

Tennessee: 6

South Carolina, Georgia, Virginia: 5 each

Wisconsin: 2