At House-Hasson, a major expansion

Independent regional hardware distributor House-Hasson Hardware acquired Long-Lewis Hardware Company of Birmingham, Alabama.

With the addition of Long-Lewis’s approximately $30 million in annual sales, House-Hasson’s annual revenues will be well above $200 million, and the company will add some 500 dealers to its existing customer base of 2,000 dealers.

Some 18,000 Long-Lewis inventory line items will be integrated into the House-Hasson system’s warehouse in Knoxville.

“Long-Lewis has a long and distinguished history of serving its hardware and lumberyard dealers,” said House-Hasson president Don Hasson. “This is a transaction that improves House-Hasson, and it enables Long-Lewis’s dealers and their customers to benefit from our technology and systems.”

 Long-Lewis was founded in 1887 in Birmingham, originally under the name Bessemer Cornice Works, changing its name after buying Lewis Hardware, a competitor. House-Hasson was formed in 1906.

Long-Lewis is also Alabama’s oldest Ford dealership, and one of its largest, with locations throughout Alabama. This was a factor in the House-House acquisition of Long-Lewis, Hasson said.

“Long-Lewis is a large and impressive Ford dealership; hardware is not its principal focus,” he said. “To Long-Lewis’s credit, it recognized that to move forward it was necessary to either devote extensive resources to the hardware side or sell to a company that has hardware as its sole business and the technological and operational ability to keep dealers on the leading edge of the industry. Long-Lewis chose the latter, and we’re very pleased.”

Vaughn Burrell, owner of Long-Lewis Hardware, said House-Hasson is exactly what he was looking for in a company to acquire the hardware side of his business.

“House-Hasson is a tremendously respected name in this industry,” Burrell said. “It’s a family-owned company, and we’re a family-owned company. House-Hasson has remarkable history, talent, and systems that make sure dealers have what they need to be successful. Everyone benefits.”

“We’re particularly pleased that Long-Lewis’s 10 excellent salesmen and an exceptional sales manager are joining our team,” Hasson said. Total House-Hasson employees, at 400, are not changing appreciably in number.

Hasson said the makeup of Long-Lewis’s dealers is about 65 percent hardware stores and 35 percent lumberyards, “about the same as with our company.”

House-Hasson serves dealers in 17 states and the Caribbean Basin.