CLAY — Runnings — a Minnesota–based, family-owned retailer that is expanding into Central New York — markets itself as “Your Home, Farm, and Outdoor Store.” It includes outdoor sporting goods among its product offerings.

“That is … about hunting, fishing, shooting sports, archery, camping … very much the outdoor lifestyle,” says Dennis Jensen, the company’s director of marketing and advertising.

Jensen spoke with the Business Journal News Network on Sept. 18. Two weeks earlier, the retailer announced plans to open a store in Clay next spring.

For most of its existence, consumers have known Runnings as a farm-supply store. But, when consumers started requesting clothing, footwear, and sporting goods, the company started adding the products over the past decade, says Jensen.

Besides sporting goods, the retailer also sells items that include clothing, footwear, pet supplies, housewares, tools, farm supplies, lawn and garden supplies, and toys.

Runnings will move into a 117,000-square-foot space at 3949 Route 31 in Clay, the former Walmart location situated next door to Walmart’s new store.

The Clay store is the next step in a broader expansion across upstate New York that Runnings announced in mid-July.

The company opened new stores on Sept. 9 in Rome, Gloversville, and Canandaigua, representing the first “major regional expansion” in Runnings’ 67-year history, the company said in the July news release.

For its Clay store, Runnings bought the property from WalMart’s real-estate business, says Jensen. He declined to comment on the purchase price or disclose how the company financed the property acquisition.

However, Onondaga County Office of Real Property Tax Services online records show that Runnings, under the name JR&R II, LLC, bought the property for more than $4.8 million.

Runnings is still in the “initial stages” of hiring a contractor to renovate the property for a new store, as well as hiring the store’s future employees, according to Jensen.

“Once the contracts are signed and all the paperwork is completed, then we will start the process of hiring contractors to begin renovations in those buildings,” he says, referring to the location in Clay and one in New Hampshire that’s scheduled to open at the same time.

Runnings plans to hire between 60 and 75 employees (a mix of full-time and part-time) to work in the Clay store, Jensen adds.

The Upstate stores that opened in early September hired between 75 and 80 employees each.

When asked why Runnings decided to expand into upstate New York as opposed to any other location in the country, Jensen says it started with the available space.

“We were notified of several properties … that were currently open,” he says, noting the process started about a year ago.

Runnings sent representatives to the Upstate region to conduct “a deeper evaluation” of the landscape, the lifestyle, [and] the people, and decided “quickly” that Runnings stores could work in upstate New York, according to Jensen.

“It’s a very rural area … got a lot of woods. It’s got farm area. It’s got people that love the outdoor lifestyle,” he says.

Founded in 1947, Runnings is a privately held company that the Dennis and Adele Reed family owns. The retailer currently operates 37 stores and employs more than 1,700 workers in its stores in upstate New York and across Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com