Freeman
Mfg. & Supply Company History
| Our
company was born in 1902 when Bill Freeman, owner
of “Freeman Pattern Shop” in Maumee,
OH, began re-selling materials to other patternshops
out of his storage room. He did so well with his
side business that he moved to Toledo and renamed
his operation “Freeman Pattern Supply”. |
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In
the mid 1950’s Gerald R. Rusk, a former warehouseman,
grew the company by acquiring a manufacturing division
and some smaller suppliers around the country. It
was during this time that Freeman became the operation
we recognize today. This string of nationwide distribution
centers would contribute greatly to the future success
of the company and establish the “Freeman” name
as a major supplier to our industries. The locations
at that time were Toledo, Newark, Chicago, Houston,
Fort Worth, Milwaukee, and Springfield (Mass). |
| In
1974, Gerald W. Rusk (Gerald R. Rusk’s son)
took over the business. He appointed Lou Turco as
the President of the company (formerly the Vice President
of Finance) in 1981. After moving the headquarters
to Cleveland, OH in 1984, some of the remote branch
locations were relocated and the organization further
streamlined. The company continued to broaden its
line of product offerings and solidified their reputation
as a “one-stop-shop” to the pattern and
tooling industries. |
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| Freeman
Mfg. & Supply Company moved to its current headquarters
in Avon, OH in 1998. The traditional line of pattern
supplies has evolved to incorporate a number of tooling
plastics and composite materials that are common
to a host of other industries and manufacturing processes
beyond the traditional pattern and foundry trades.
Freeman is now a major supplier to customers that
do automotive and aircraft tooling, modelmaking,
rapid prototyping, vacuum forming, injection molding,
metal stamping, and a number of other industries
in addition to our traditional markets. |
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We
now service our North American customers with nine
US locations and one in Canada, plus dozens
of authorized distributors of our products both
domestically and worldwide.
Our customers continue to look for ways to produce
functional tools, prototypes, patterns, and models
faster and cheaper than they ever had before. As
the products, industries, and technologies continue
to change, we will continue to lead our competitors
with the most shipping locations and broadest product
lines in our industry.
“…it
all starts here.” |
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