1993 FIN – History of Hodell-Natco Industries

January 22

00:00 2010

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By Floyd Lesti, vice president
Hodell-Natco Industries, Inc.
October 29, 1993 FIN – Both companies, the Hodell Corp. and Natco Fasteners Inc. have roots in a grand old company named the National Screw & Manufacturing Co.
National Screw of Cleveland, Ohio was founded around 1889 and was originally named the National Screw & Tack Co.
National Screw over the years had produced many varieties of standard and specialty fasteners as well as many other products throughout its divisions and subsidiaries located both nationwide and worldwide.

The Hodell Corp., also of Cleveland, Ohio was founded by the Hodell family in 1886 and was originally named the Hodell Chain Co. Over the years, Hodell has produced many varieties of welded and weldless chain for industrial and hardware use.

Hodell was acquired by National Screw in 1954 which continued to operate the chain company as one of its divisions.
In 1963, a conglomerate, Monogram Industries, Inc. of Los Angeles, CA acquired National Screw and continued all of the operations as a subsidiary company.

In 1966, National Screw established Natco as a warehousing division for the distribution of its standard fasteners primarily to the hardware markets.
In January 1967, National Screw purchased Southwest Bolt & Nut Co. of St. Louis, MO, which was then used as a base to expand the Natco division. Natco has since become a full line fastener distributor furnishing both standard and specialty fasteners to a broad array of markets.

In 1983, Monogram Industries sold the Hodell division to a Cleveland, Ohio investment group who have continued the operations of this grand old chain company.

In 1984, Monogram Industries was acquired by another conglomerate, Nortek Inc., and near year-end in 1984, Nortek sold the Natco division to the same Cleveland investors that purchased Hodell.

Over the past ten years, both Hodell and Natco with geographic locations in both Cleveland and St. Louis have continued to provide a complete line of welded and weldless chain, chain assemblies for specialty application, and chain accessories as well as a full line of standard fasteners and specialty fasteners.

Over the past several years, Natco also acquired certain assets, including goodwill, of Bi-State Stainless Fasteners Co. of St. Louis, in 1986; Service Bolt & Nut Co. Inc. of Cleveland, in 1987; and Metal Fasteners & Bolt Co. including its Lok-Tooth division of Toledo, OH in 1989.
The acquisition of the inventories of some of these companies mentioned as well as the rights to continues the use of their names have further broadened the product line of our company. As a result of the Lok-Tooth acquisition, Natco became an authorized master distributor of ITW Shakeproof products.

Since both the Hodell Corp. and Natco Fasteners Inc. have been under common ownership, and in many cases sell to identical markets, economies of scale convinced us to merge the two companies and form Hodell-Natco Industries Inc.
Hodell-Natco Industries continues to operate with two geographic locations.

The St. Louis operations are housed in a 35,000 sq ft distribution center located at 11688 Fairgrove Industrial Blvd., Maryland Heights, Missouri 63043.
Our new recently completed, 46,000 square foot Cleveland distribution center and corporate office is located at 6300 Halle Drive, Valley View, Ohio 44125.
The management team of Hodell-Natco Industries, Inc. is as follows: Otto Reidl, president, Floyd Lesti; vice president; Charles Bocklage, St. Louis sales manager-fasteners; Mike Lamboy, Cleveland sales manager-chain; and Patricia O’Neill, Cleveland purchasing manager.

All of the management team has been associated with the fastener and chain industries for a considerable amount of time. Otto Reidl has been our only president since Monogram sold Hodell in 1983. Floyd Lesti started with National Screw in 1969 and was transferred to the Natco division in 1972. Charlie Bocklage was named general manager of Natco St. Louis in 1966 and came to Natco Cleveland with the acquisition of North Ohio Bolt & Nut in 1986 and brought almost ten years experience. Mike Lamboy came to Natco Cleveland with the acquisition of North Ohio Bolt & But in 1986 and brought with him a dozen years of experience. Mike Sidick joined our operations in 1988 having brought with him almost twenty-five years of experience. Patricia O’Neill joined the Natco family in 1972.

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