Pleasants Hardware Company Inc history

The partners adopted the Ace name in 1927, and incorporated the following year.

Ace opened its first warehouse just prior to the 1929 crash and subsequent economic devastation, its founders capitalizing on a need for hardware and tools as homeowners were forced to do their own patching up and repairing.

1930: Hesse becomes president of the organization.

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.

The company slowly expanded over the next few decades until Westlake joined the Ace Hardware distribution network in 1959 and eventually became the largest Ace dealer in America.

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

Hesse served in that capacity for more than four decades, until the end of 1973.

1974: Krausman succeeds Hesse as president.

1976: Ownership of Ace passes to its dealers.

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

In a 1980 interview with Hardware Age, Ace Chairman Krausman credited the success to flexibility, inventory depth, and advertising of independent operators.

By 1984, Ace's national advertising budget topped $10 million, most of which was spent on television spots.

Pleasants Hardware’s Broad Street neighbor, C. F. Sauer, acquired Pleasants Hardware in 1989.

In January 1990, Pleasants Hardware opened its first branch operation, a Commercial and Industrial supply business, in Harrisonburg, Va.

He got his start in 1991 at a paint and decorating store that he eventually managed.

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

As part of its plan to improve retail performance, Ace also announced that it would open its own stores in the Chicago area to test retail concepts, an objective it achieved in by 1995.

NHS also became the supplier in 1998 to the largest non-cooperative buying group for lumber and building materials in the United States.

In April 2000, Ace placed in-store kiosks in more than 1,000 stores, allowing customers immediate access to the web site.

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 corporate structure, with Venhuizen at the helm since 2013, exists only to do their bidding, overseeing 14 regional distribution centers that supply each store with the right mix of $800 Weber grills and $15 hammers.

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.

In December 2015, C. F. Sauer announced that they would be closing the Broad Street Pleasants location and redeveloping that property into a new retail complex.