Corporate Information

Throughout our 85-year history, Ace has been known as the helpful hardware place in the neighborhood by do-it-yourself enthusiasts. For its first 50 years in business, Ace was privately held until 1976 when its transition to a retailer-owned cooperative was completed. Since then, Ace has been wholly owned by its store owner entrepreneurs.

Today, Ace is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the industry and clear leader in the convenience segment of the home improvement marketplace in terms of wholesale and retail sales, market share and strength of the brand. Ace’s 4,600 stores in all 50 states and 60 countries generate annual retail sales of more than $13 billion. In 2007, wholesale sales to its retailers surpassed $3.97 billion.

Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace currently operates 14 distribution centers in the U.S. and one in Shanghai, China. Ace employs 4,800 corporate team members worldwide and has four regional offices in Raleigh, N.C; Atlanta, Ga.; Denver, Colo.; and Woodridge, Ill.

The following are some facts about the Ace brand:

• In April 2008, Ace also was ranked in the top 10 of Crain’s Chicago Business list of “Chicago’s Largest Privately Held Companies”.
• In March 2008, BusinessWeek magazine ranked Ace in the top 10 of “Customer Service Champs”.
• In December 2008, Ace was ranked as the 26th largest retailer in the U.S. by Management Ventures, Inc.
• The January 2009 edition of Entrepreneur magazine ranked Ace #6 in the list of top 500 franchises. 
• Franchise Timesranked Ace #5 on its list of top 200 franchises in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
• Fifty percent of the U.S. population lives within five miles of an Ace Hardware store.