Lawrenceville Winnelson

History:

In 1875, Nils Olas Nelson founded the Nelson Mfg. Co. in St. Louis, Missouri. The company manufactured and distributed plumbing supplies of all kinds, including faucets, water closets, water heaters, valves and fire hydrants.

Like its competitors of they day, AmStan and Crane, Nelson Company realized that it could not effectively be both a manufacturer and a distributor. But unlike the others, Nelson decided to concentrate its efforts on distribution rather than manufacturing.

By December 1954, Nelson, or NONCO as it was known, had a net worth of about $ million, with 22 branches, 20 regional sales offices and 450 employees in 15 states. Less than a year later, Sydney Albert and his Bellanca Aircraft Corporation acquired 97 percent of the NONCO shares of stock. In June of 1957, Glenn Seydel bought the company's assets.

Opportunity, disguised as tragedy, presented itself on March 21, 1958, when the Pueblo, Colorado, branch of Nelson suffered a serious fire. Nelson's management decided it would be too much trouble to rebuild, so they discharged the employees and offered to sell the burned inventory for its book value.

Meanwhile, a company called Primus Inc. had been founded two years earlier by a group of friends and entrepreneurs in Darien, Connecticut, led by Dick Schiewetz, Robert Kuhns and Hastings Baker. Primus found out about the Pueblo fire and stepped in to help.

Kuhns, whose family owned a foundry in Dayton, Ohio, that produced cast iron and ductal pipe fittings, flew to Pueblo to offer Primus’ help. Three Nelson employees offered to mortgage their homes and invest all the money they could borrow if Primus would help them reopen the business. By 8 the following Monday, March 24, 1958, the new Nelson Co. of Colorado had been formed, a warehouse leased, a profit-sharing plan established, and the employees were calling on customers. And so, the present-day Winnelson Companies were born.

Primus kept majority control of the Pueblo company, but the local employees received all the benefits of their partial ownership. This is a core philosophy still in effect today known in the company as The Spirit of Opportunity, where an entrepreneurial spirit, hard work and the willingness to invest money in one’s own company are rewarded accordingly.

Today:

In 2005, the company adopted the WinWholesale name. Also that year, WinWholesale acquired Noland Company based in Newport News, Va, which is wholly owned subsidiary. Noland, a leading wholesaler founded in 1915 by Lloyd U. “Casey” Noland, provides plumbing, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, and electrical and industrial supplies to contractors.

More than 50 years after Primus was founded in 1956, WinWholesale is a leading national wholesale distributor. It is on the Forbes list of America’s largest privately-held companies.

There are more than 450 locally owned and operated Win companies in 43 states under the following names: Winnelson, Winair, Winlectric, Windustrial, Wintronic, Winwater and Winsupply. In addition, there are more than 100 Noland branches in 13 states. The Win companies and Noland Company are collectively known as the Win Group of Companies.

Local Win companies and Noland branches receive consulting services to improve wholesaling operations. These services include accounting, payroll, insurance administration and data processing services, group buying and distribution center services.