🠈 True Value 🠊
True Value
True Value is a merchant-cooperative with over 4000 members. The stores sell hardware and home goods.
True Value also owns the brand for several rental stores including Taylor Rental, Party Central, and Grand Rental Station. You will often see a rental store next to a True Value.
Induserve Supply is a brand of stores selling directly to Maintenance and Repair Operations.
A merchant cooperative differs from a franchise in that the central cooperative is owned by the members of the cooperative. This gives the member stores greater latitude when designing their shops.
A result of the cooperative structure is that all True Value stores have different inventories and different management styles. One interesting result is that many True Value stores have their own web site.
Acquisition History
This section lists a few of the mergers that took place in the growth of True Value.
- 1948: John Cotter created a merchant cooperative called Cotter & Company. It had twelve member stores.
- 1962: Cotter & Company purchased Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Company for $2.5M. The purchase included the "True Value" Brand.
Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Company
- 1855: Hibbard Spencer Bartlett & Company was founded as hardware wholesaler. They developed the "True Value" brand.
- 1940s: Hibbard opened several stores under the True Value which they closed after complaints from other merchants
- 1950s: Hibbard bought several wholesaler companies and developed True Value as a franchise. It grew to 1000 stores.
- 1962: Hibbard wanted to concentrate on real estate investment and sold its hardware holdings to Cotter. The franchises became merchant owners and the Cotter members rebranded as True Value..
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July 1997: Cotter and Company merged with ServiStar. The cooperative rebranded itself as TruServe
ServiStar History
- 1910: merchants created a merchant cooperative called American Hardware & Supply Company.
- 1960: American Hardware & Supply moved its headquarters to East Butler, Pa.
- 1965: The coop had 450 members and $18M in sales.
- American Hardware launched the voluntary ServiStar distribution and advertising program.
- 1987: Over 4000 stores used the ServiStar program and company changed its name to ServiStar Corporation.
- July 1990: Servistar acquired Coast to Coast for $25M from Amdura Corporation
Coast to Coast History
- 1928: Coast to Coast was founded by the Melamed brothers: Authur, Maurice and Louis in Minneapolis, Mn.
- 1962: The three brothers retired.
- 1983: Coast to Coast had grown to over 1000 stores. They attempted to open home improvement stores which led to financial difficulties.
- 1988: A subsidiary of Denver based company called Amduro named Amdura National Distribution Company (ANDCO) bought Coast to Coast with a $200M loan from a banking group led by Continental Bank.
- 1990: Amdura Corporation sold Coast to Coast to ServiStar
- 1993: ServiStar acquired the 288 store Taylor Rental Corp. from The Stanley Works
- 1999: The cooperative had over 8000 stores. An "accounting irregularity" on the Cotter and Company books led to a $131M loss. The stock tanked and many local stores switched to Ace Hardware
- 2005: TruServ changed its name to True Value Company.
References:
- Chicago Tribue - Hardware Coop's Hard Times (Drawn 1/1/2018)
- Wikipedia - True Value (Drawn 1/1/2018)
- Funding Universe - TruServ (Drawn 1/1/2018)
- Justia US Law - RE Andura (Drawn 1/1/2018)
Directory Listings:
- Boulder Color - Hardware Stores: True Value
- Denver Color - Hardware / Lumber: True Value
- Fort Collins Color - Home & Garden: True Value
- Grand Junction - Home: True Value
- Pueblo Color - Home: True Value
- Internet Rivers - Rental Companies: True Value
- Missoula Websites - Home: True Value
- Cedar City - Home: True Value
- Logan Utah - Hardware: True Value
- Moab - Shopping: True Value
- Saint George - Home / Furniture: True Value
- Salt Lake Sites - Hardware: True Value
- Tooele - Shopping: South Fork Hardware
- Vernal, Utah. US - Shopping: True Value
- Cheyenne, Wyoming. US - Home and Garden: True Value
- Laramie, Wyoming - Shopping: True Value of Laramie