5/18/2011 11:25:00 AM
NEWS BRIEFS
History of Porteous Fastener and Heads & Threads International
Porteous Fastener History
February 20, 2008 FIN – Porteous Fastener Co. marked its 40th anniversary by publishing more than 100 company stories from employees, customers and suppliers in a book entitled Porteous: Forty Years of First Class Service.
Subtitled “Four decades of stories and strategies”, the 109-page book is dedicated to founder John Barry (Bud) Porteous and his wife, Anne Weber Porteous.
Bud Porteous, born and raised in the Midwest, went through the Great Depression as the son of a pharmacist and a schoolteacher. While working in the family drug store he witnessed customers begging with tears in their eyes for credit to get medicine for their children. It was something he never forgot, current CEO Barry Porteous wrote in introducing the founder.
Bud Porteous moved to California in 1946 after serving in World War II and went to work for his uncle at Russell Bolt & Manufacturing.
Twenty years later, using his severance pay and a loan from his wife, he founded Porteous Fastener Company after Russell Bolt was liquidated.
As fast as Bud could grow the new company, he had a ready-made work force of people left unemployed by Russell.
Porteous opened a 2,000 sq ft warehouse in downtown Los Angeles and couldn’t pay himself for three years. Two years later he opened a branch in San Francisco and commuted there for a year to make the branch profitable.
In 1984 Bud and Anne Porteous had to put everything they owned, down to the pots and pans in their kitchen, on the line to acquire International Fastener Company, which had Houston and Atlanta locations. In fact, we wouldn’t be where we are today had we not bought it, Barry Porteous wrote.
Fastener History
Though primarily about Porteous Fastener Co., even the company stories tell industry history. In August 1994 two typhoons struck Taiwan, dropping a combined total of 32 inches of rain.
The first suppliers PFC could get in contact with reported that Shin-lo Street, known as Fastener Row, was under water.
Only the roofs of fastener factories could be seen. Nut formers and screw machines were submerged. Wire drawing machines and forklifts were out of sight. Parts were rusting.
Barry Porteous began paying the open payment terms invoices quickly to give the factories cash to recover. The factories could plate the rusting parts and ship against plated orders until new production was possible.
In the early 1970s, Porteous Fastener survived the six-month West Coast dock strike with surplus inventory from customers and employees taking a 10% pay cut. Employees were repaid following the dock strike.
Though most of the book focuses on Bud Porteous, Mel Kirsner of Pell Mell Supply recalled a Porteous deliveryman who had a gal in the truck and a surfboard. Kirsner called Bud to tell him he shouldn’t tolerate this kind of behavior from his employees. He says, “Mel, that’s my son Barry.”
HTI History
• Heads & Threads International went into receivership early this year with $16 million in debt.
• Founded in 1953 by Norman Sackheim as Heads & Threads Co. in Chicago, the company was acquired in 1974 by insurance giant Alleghany Corp.
Alleghany inherited Northbrook, IL-based Heads & Threads with the acquisition of fabricated steel product manufacturer MSL Industries. That business included everything from motors for the then-famous IBM Selectric typewriters to parts for machine guns used in Vietnam and barge-size I-beams for bridges.
• “It was a quite profitable business,” Alleghany senior vice president David Cuming recalled during a 2000 interview with FIN in his office on the 32nd floor of the Seagram Building on Manhattan’s Park Avenue. “We liked the steel business as a possible investment area.”
Though most of Alleghany’s steel business was eventually spun off, somehow Heads & Threads stayed with Alleghany over the decades.
Treasurer Peter Sismondo noted in 2000 that Alleghany didn’t need to pay much attention to Heads & Threads or fasteners, because “Lee Bookman ran the company so well. He sent up cash and didn’t require attention. Lee knew the business. He was the first one in with the numbers and always had good numbers.”
Lee Bookman had started with Heads & Threads in 1959 and became president in 1967.
• In 1998 Alleghany Corp. merged its Heads & Threads headed by Bookman with Gardenbolt International Inc. – headed by Steven Schonholtz – to form HTI.
In 2000, HTI relocated its headquarters to Sayreville, NJ.
• In 2000 Acktion Corp. sold Reynolds Fasteners to Alleghany Corporation’s Heads & Threads International LLC unit. Terms were not disclosed.
Acktion — formerly Acklands Limited — acquired Edison, NJ-based Reynolds in 1996. Acktion was once thought to be planning to expand in fasteners via fastener importer Reynolds and its industrial, automotive and safety products distribution segment. However, Acktion sold the industrial group to W.W. Grainger in late 1996 and the operating assets of Rose Auto Stores to Eastern Automotive Wholesale Ltd. in 1997. That made Toronto, Ontario-based Acktion primarily a real estate investment company.
The announcement of the sale noted that Reynolds “is the last of its non-core operations.” Acktion’s 1998 revenue was about $240 million. Reynolds, led by president Don Haggerty, reported 1997 sales totaled $96.1 million.
• In 2001 Haggerty succeeded Schonholtz as CEO or HTI.
• In 2003 HTI marked its 50th anniversary and relocated its headquarters from Sayreville, NJ, to suburban Chicago and Greg Brown replaced Don Haggerty as CEO.
• In 2004 Alleghany sold Heads & Threads International for $55 million in cash in a management buyout. The deal included all five distribution centers and six warehouses.
The management team consisted of CEO Greg Brown, CFO Fred Weber and executive vice president Mike Wrenn.
In 2004 HTI reported revenues for the third quarter jumped 36.8% to $41.8 million, while nine-month sales gained 44% to $123.22 million.
Brown told FIN in 2004 that the sale was based on Alleghany’s decision that Heads & Threads was not part of its core business of handling property and casualty insurance.
• In 2010, Heads & Threads launched a new division – Socket Screw Supply – to expand in socket products.
As of the beginning of 2011, HTI was led by CEO/president Michael Wrenn; CFO and vice president for finance Fred Weber; vice president for operations and transportation Jim MacWilliams; and vice president of materials Ruth Dowling.
Officially HTI was a master distributor and importer with a product list of 14,000 items. HTI has branches in Atlanta, Cleveland, Houston, Miami, Seattle Dallas, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Tampa and is headquartered at 785 Center Ave., Carol Stream, IL 60188. Tel: 732 727-5800 or 800 929-1950 Web: headsandthreads.com ©2011 GlobalFastenerNews.com
Related Stories:
• Porteous Fastener Acquires Heads & Threads
• U.S. ITC Unanimously Finds China & Mexico Selling Steel Wire Below Fair Value
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