Last Updated:May 16. 2008 10:22PM
Published: May 17. 2008 3:30AM

One of Sheffield's largest sales tax revenue producers, Marvin's Building Supply & Home Center on Second Street, will close its doors in June.

Marvin's has been in business in the city for about 25 years.

"It will be closed by the end of June," said Craig Cowart, Marvin's vice president of merchandising and marketing.

Because Marvin's is a privately owned company, Cowart declined to go into detail about why the business is closing.

"We are just closing that location," he said. "We have over 26 stores in the Southeast."

Cowart said closing the Sheffield facility is not indicative of the overall financial health of Marvin's. He said, in fact, there's a possibility that Marvin's could open a new store in the Shoals in the future.

"We do relocate," Cowart said. "It depends on the market, timing, the availability of property. Last year, we relocated our oldest store and put it in a new facility."

Cowart said there were no plans at present to relocate the Sheffield store in the Shoals area.

In the meantime, Cowart said the company will either try to lease or sell the building and property.

He said most Marvin's stores average 20-25 employees. He said the Sheffield store employed fewer than 20.

"What we're trying to do with our longtime associates is try to find them a fit somewhere else in the chain, if they're able to relocate," Cowart said.

He expects some employees to be transferred to the Marvin's in Decatur or be assigned to special projects for the company.

Sheffield City Clerk Clayton Kelly said a Moore-Handley hardware and building supply store occupied the building before it became a Marvin's. He added that Moore-Handley was in business on Second Street for about 10 years.

While he declined to say exactly how much tax revenue the Marvin's store produced annually, Kelly said it was one of the city's top five.

He said the loss of three months of tax revenue from the store will likely cause Sheffield to miss its projected tax revenue for the year, but that will not seriously affect city operations. The loss of an entire year of revenue, however, will cause the city to budget less overall tax revenue for the next fiscal year, which begins in October.

Marvin's is one of many businesses to close in Sheffield in recent years. Kelly said the city has lost "probably in excess of 40 businesses" over the past 3 1/2 years.

While some might have been small businesses, "They generated some tax revenue for us," Kelly said.

In Florence, Guthrie's Chicken closed its doors Monday.

Bruce Brown, director of operations for Guthrie's, said the decision to close the store was made by the owner of the local franchise.

"Our stores are independently owned," Brown said.

The decision had to do with "business reasons," Brown said.

He said there are 56 Guthrie's stores in the Southeast, including Russellville, Moulton and Decatur.

Brown said the manager of the Florence Guthrie's would be moving to another site. The remaining employees were part-time "high school students."

Russ Corey can be reached at 740-5738 or russ.corey@timesdaily.com.