On the move

It started with an inquiry about a parking lot.

But Mark Valentine ended up taking on the entire building.

Valentine Feed and Supply closed its Portland location Friday and is in the process of moving its merchandise this weekend to re-open Tuesday at its new home in the former Will’s IGA building on Indiana 67 in Redkey.

The operation had outgrown its location on the north side of Portland about two years ago, Valentine said, be he had not been able to find the right place for a move. Then, near the end of 2018, Brooks Fugiett contacted him about the possibility of utilizing the parking lot space at the former IGA. Valentine and his wife Marianne agreed to take a look at it.

“Through discussions over the next two weeks it just became obvious that this would be the right place for us to move our business,” said Valentine this week in the 6,500-square-foot space.

Valentine will make use of that additional space — Fugiett, who owns the building, and his Mid-States Concrete and Construction crew made some upgrades including a garage door with a ramp and a new counter — by expanding the store’s product line and adding to it as well. The southeast side of the store has several shelving units for wild bird, poultry and rabbit food and other pet supplies. The east wall will have 50 percent more space for show supplies, and there will also be new lawn and garden items. The rest of the east side of the store will be lined with aisles of poultry, rabbit, equine and goat feed, with fencing across north wall on the east side of the store.

The northeast corner of the building will be set up as a permanent seminar area. Already planned is a youth livestock quality assurance seminar with Purdue Extension and a talk May 4 about equine hay quality. Those who attend the equine hay event will be able to have their hay samples analyzed by Cargill, with reports to come back at the June 8 grand opening.

Pet supplies will be along the west wall, adjacent to aisles with pallets of dog and cat food.

The center aisle of the store will feature other displays to show off some items that are relegated to the front porch at the current location.

The southwest corner of the store will feature one of the new offerings — the Ariat clothing line, which is being provided via partnership with Sunshine Boutique of Fort Recovery. Knowing he needed more products to fill his additional space, Valentine approached Krista Muhlenkamp, Sunshine’s owner and a Jay County resident, about working together. She jumped at the chance.

“No. 1, I’ve fallen in love with this line,” said Muhlenkamp. “And it’s a great service to our livestock kids, our show kids. It’s a line they love to wear. …

“It was just an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.”

Ariat started as an equestrian brand and has grown from there. It mostly focuses on men, though there will be some offerings for women’s at Valentine, ranging from work clothes to a casual weekend line.

The move to the Redkey location, which is more than double the size of the Portland store, will also allow Valentine to increase is line of Purina products and add Nutrena horse feed. He plans to add a line of feed mixers.

Another benefit of the Redkey site is a significantly larger, and paved, parking lot.

“Overall, it’s going to be a lot better shopping experience for our customers,” said Valentine.

His hope is that the move will allow some expansion of his current business “quadrant,” which includes mostly Jay, Adams, Randolph, Blackford, Delaware and Wells counties in Indiana and some penetration into Mercer County in Ohio. He said he’s already seen some expansion to the west since the announcement of the move.

The grand opening will feature a sled dog team and vendor representatives from feed companies. There will be drawings throughout the day, and Valentine hopes to have a working cattle system up for demonstrations.

The new store will continue to be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, with extended hours on Friday (8 a.m. to 8 p.m.) and Saturday (8 a.m. to 2 p.m.).

“That’s somewhat in response to people from Portland, what we refer to as our retail customers — bird seed, dog food,” said Valentine. “We don’t want to lose that business. … By extending our hours on Fridays and Saturdays we feel like we’re going to help them out.”