Ace Hardware

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

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. Ace operates 17 distribution centers in the United States, and additional distribution facilities in China, Panama, and the United Arab Emirates.