|
|
|
 In 1865, H.B. Newton and George W. Hubbard opened Newton & Hubbard Hardware Store in Flint, Michigan. The business prospered and five years later, Hubbard bought out his partner and renamed the store “Hubbard Hardware”. Part of the business’s success lays in the personal attention that Hubbard gave to his customers. He was known to arrive early, before the store opened, to attend to paperwork and business matters in order to spend the rest of the day at the door, personally greeting and interacting with the customers.
After Hubbard’s death in 1937, the Burrough family, who George Hubbard’s daughter had married into and were already prominent business family within the community, became major stockholders in the company and took control. They kept the name of the company the same and developed an industrial supply division. The Burrough family continued to run the business until 1963, when it was sold to Charles “Chuck” Shelley, a local businessman.
 Shelley wanted to capitalize on the growing industrial market and decided to close the retail and wholesale divisions to focus on the industrial supply division. This move pushed the company into a new direction and changed the name to Hubbard Industrial Supply. Shelley also convinced his son-in-law, Robert Fuller, to join the company. When Shelley retired in 1977, Fuller took over as president and continued the momentum Shelley started by looking for growth opportunities. Soon afterwards, he opened a regional distribution center in Saginaw, the first of many expansions. Branch offices in Lansing and Livonia were opened and later closed as the business changed once again.
In 1993, Hubbard Industrial Supply acquired Shand Electronics, an electronic supplier in Flint. Shand Electronics operated as a separate business entity until 1999 when the company was merged with Hubbard Industrial Supply. The name was then changed to Hubbard Supply Co.
 In 2004, Hubbard Supply Co. acquired Kendall Industrial Supply of Battle Creek, MI. This move expanded Hubbard Supply Co.’s geographical reach to the west side of Michigan, adding branches in Battle Creek, Benton Harbor and Traverse City.
The most recent development in the Hubbard Supply Co. story is the change of ownership that occurred in April 2007. Jeff Bigelow and Tim Brooks, current CEO and COO respectively, purchased the company from Fuller, keeping it a family owned, private business. Fuller remains with company as CFO.
 Hubbard Supply Co. are members of two national industrial cooperates, Affiliated Distributors and Edge Inc. These cooperatives combine the purchasing power of distributors across the country and provide access to over 3500 manufacturers, allowing better pricing and product availability to be passed on to our customers.
 What started as a small hardware store is now one of the leading industrial and electronic suppliers in Michigan. Today, Hubbard Supply Co. has 5 branch offices, 2 distribution centers, 8 partner distribution centers and conducts business in all of Michigan and northern Indiana and Ohio.
|
|
|
Return to Home
