Ace Hardware

Ace Hardware Corporation
Company typePrivately held company
retailers' cooperative
IndustryHardware stores
FoundedChicago, Illinois, U.S. (October 25, 1924; 100 years ago (1924-10-25))
Founders
  • Richard Hesse
  • E. Gunnard Lindquist
  • Frank Burke
  • Oscar Fisher
  • William Stauber
Headquarters,
US
Number of locations
Over 5,700 (2022)[1]
Area served
International[2]
Key people
John Venhuizen (President and CEO); Steven Burggraf (chairman of the board)
RevenueIncrease US$9.17 Billion (2022)
Increase US$341 million (2022)
Increase US$340.6 million (2022)
Total assetsIncrease US$3.491 billion (2022)
Total equityIncrease US$891.8 million (2022)
Number of employees
12,500 (2022)[2][3]
Website

Ace Hardware Corporation is an American hardware retailers' cooperative based in Oak Brook, Illinois, United States. It is the largest non-grocery retail cooperative in the United States.[4]

Founded on October 25, 1924, as "Ace Stores", the company changed its name to "Ace Hardware Corporation" in 1931. It grew dramatically following World War II, more than tripling its sales between the late 1940s and 1959. After the retirement of longtime president and founder Richard Hesse in 1973, Ace was sold to its retailers, becoming a retailer-owned cooperative. It first reached $1 billion in wholesale sales in 1985 and $5 billion in 2015. As of 2019, it has over 5,200 locations in 60 countries.[1] Ace operates 17 distribution centers in the United States, and additional distribution facilities in China, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates.[5][6]

  1. ^ a b About Us Ace Hardware.
  2. ^ a b "Ace Hardware Customer Service". ACE Hardware. Retrieved December 3, 2015.
  3. ^ Ace Hardware Craft.
  4. ^ O'Connor, Claire (March 2, 2015). "How Ace Hardware Turned Corner Stores Into A $4.7 Billion Co-Op". Forbes. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ace was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Ace Hardware International Implements Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning" (Press release). Ace Hardware. August 11, 2016. Retrieved August 12, 2016 – via Business Wire.