Aco Hardware history

When Jeremy Melnick's grandfather opened his first Ace Hardware store along Chicago's ritzy Gold Coast in 1950, there wasn't a whole lot of competition.

By January 1951 the company's sales had reached $9 million.

In 1961 Ace purchased its first mainframe computer.

In 1963 the company began expanding into the South and the West Coast.

The organization opened its first distribution centers beyond the bounds of Chicago in 1969.

After Hesse retired in 1973, Ace was sold to its retail dealers, and the headquarters moved to suburban Oak Brook.

1974: Krausman succeeds Hesse as president.

By 1976, when ownership of Ace had passed completely to its dealers, the organization's sales volume had reached $382 million.

The company achieved national penetration in 1978, when it signed on members in the eastern United States.

1984: Ace begins to manufacture its own line of paints.

Another way in which the company helps communities is through the Ace Hardware Foundation, which was founded in 1991.

In 1993 the retail support company surpassed $2 billion in sales, a 7.9 percent increase over the previous year.

These were the first of 14 retail support centers that came into being across the country by 1994.

The company's first Asian store, a 15,000-square-foot outlet outside Indonesia's capital of Jakarta, was opened in 1995.

In 1997 sales of paint, cleaning supplies, and related supplies accounted for 21 percent of revenue, while sales of plumbing and heating supplies made up 15 percent of revenue.

simmons, kelly. "battling tooth and nail: faced with 'big box' competitors like home depot, hardware stores emphasize personalized service and join buying cooperatives." atlanta journal and constitution, 2 february 1998.

By the company’s 75th anniversary in 1999, according to an article in National Home Center News, only one fifth of the co-op’s members shared information with Ace via computer.

The board laid out four primary objectives to be achieved by the year 2000: improved retail performance, more efficient operations, international growth, and a faster pace for new store openings.

By 2002, the dealer-owned cooperative cleared about $3 billion in annual sales, supplied a network of over 5,000 retail stores in all 50 states and more than 60 countries, and employed about 1,000 Chicago-area residents.

The company briefly flirted with converting from a retailer-owned co-op to a for-profit corporation during the most recent recession in 2007.

The Oak Brook, Ill. co-op expects a year-on-year revenue increase of 13% to about $4.7 billion and a profit boost of 35% when it releases its 2014 annual report in April, following eight consecutive quarters of record sales.