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Schiller Architectural Hardware In the News
December 2006 - Schiller proudly announces the appointment of
Caroline Schiller Wesley, wife of former president E. Harris Wesley and daughter
of founder Alfred L. Schiller as its President. Mrs. Wesley has been on
the board of directors since the 1970's and will now oversee the day to day
operations of the business.
September 11, 2006 - The Schiller Hardware family mourns the passing
of our President, E. Harris Wesley. Wesley presided over the companies unprecedented
growth in the 80's, 90's and until his untimely death due to complications
arising from a battle with cancer. He will be sorely missed.
Here's what they are saying about us in the news!
 | Date -- 12/19/03
Business First |
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When Louisville-based Schiller
Hardware Inc. opened in 1929 on West Market Street, it was a typical
retail hardware store, said Scott Wesley, Schiller executive vice
president.
Today, Schiller Hardware deals almost
entirely in commercial hardware distribution, and the shift has spelled
growth for the company, Wesley said.
Schiller Hardware, with an estimated
$18 million in sales this year, opened its fifth and sixth locations in
November. Both are in Tennessee.
A 1,500-square-foot storefront only
location opened in Nashville, Tenn., on Nov. 15, and a warehouse
distribution center opened in Memphis, Tenn., Nov. 3, he said.
Schiller also is in the process of
moving its Clarksville, Tenn., office and warehouse from a
4,000-square-foot facility to a 14,400-square-foot warehouse on 2 acres of
land at Vista Lane, Wesley said.
Schiller plans to buy that property
and warehouse from John and Ellen Garland for $270,000 before the end of
the year, although negotiations are ongoing, he said.
The warehouse will be used
immediately, though 3,000 square feet of the space will undergo a $150,000
renovation. The project is expected to be complete by the end of March or
early April, he said.
The Clarksville warehouse will fill
orders for the Nashville storefront location, he said.
Moving beyond
Kentucky
Schiller is expanding in Tennessee as
a result of significant sales increases at the Clarksville office and
warehouse, which opened there in 2001, Wesley said.
In its first six months of business,
Schiller's Clarksville warehouse had revenue of $300,000, he said.
In 2002, its first full year of
business, the Clarksville branch brought in $1.6 million in sales. And
Wesley said he expects sales to exceed $2 million at the location this
year.
Schiller's Memphis branch also is
expected to grow in sales next year to about $2 million, Wesley said.
That would require the company to increase its Memphis staff from two to
10.
The company also has
office-and-warehouse operations in Louisville, Lexington and Wilder, Ky.
Company officials expect sales at
the Louisville headquarters location, which has 35 employees, to hit $6
million this year.
"We carry products that would
be described more as commercial hardware," Wesley said. "Our
niche now is commercial work ... and most of that work is
general-contract related."
Wesley said nearly 100 percent of
Schiller's business comes from public projects that Schiller bids on.
"I can see the plans and the specs on the Web site ... bid on it
and send a quote out."
Retail competition
heating up
Schiller's move into Tennessee two
years ago was a natural one for the company, Wesley said, given its
intention since the 1990s to distance itself from retail sales.
Schiller Hardware couldn't compete
with the retail prices offered at home-improvement super-centers, such
as Lowe's and Home Depot, he added.
"Around 1990, we started to
see the handwriting on the wall," Wesley said of Schiller
officials, who decided to open Schiller's first commercial hardware
office and warehouse in Lexington that year.
After opening its Lexington branch,
Schiller moved into northern Kentucky with the Wilder office and
warehouse in 1996. The Wilder branch immediately caught on, Wesley said,
hitting $3 million in sales in 1998.
This year, he said, he expects
sales to be $2 million, which is a decline resulting from changes in
sales staff.
In 1999, Schiller moved its
headquarters from West Market Street to Bluegrass Research and
Industrial Park "to better meet our commercial needs and minimize
our retail presence," Wesley explained.
The company also decided in 1999
to close its retail branch, located in Vieux Carre Plaza at the
southwest corner of Hurstbourne Parkway and Shelbyville Road. The
store had been open since the 1970s, Wesley said.
Schiller's current growth is tied
to the company's adaptability and willingness to learn how to do
things a little differently, said Wesley, but the focus on customer
service continues.
"We want a contractor to
call us in the morning for something," he said, "and be able
to come in and pick it up, or have it delivered to them, that same
day."
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| Date -- Business
First 11/19/1999 |
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Filling a void downtown
"Now, with Schiller Hardware
Inc.'s recent move from its longtime East Market Street headquarters to
Louisville's East End, Miller is ready for a new challenge. He plans to
expand the commercial and industrial dimension of his business, targeting
the downtown sector that he says relied on Schiller.
"We're real aggressive,"
Miller said. "I want people downtown to know that they've got a
choice."
Harris Wesley, Schiller's president,
acknowledged that Miller and Ace Hardware might be able to find a niche in
the commercial hardware business. But he cautioned that it can be difficult
for a retail store to make the transition.
Schiller Hardware, which had been
downtown for 70 years, moved Nov. 1 from its headquarters at 433 E. Market
St., to a new $1.3 million site at 11525 Blankenbaker Access Drive in
Bluegrass Research and Industrial Park.
The move was made to accommodate growth
in Schiller's commercial hardware business, Wesley said.
The family-owned corporation also
operates a retail hardware store at 9430 Shelbyville Road.
"Being in the commercial end of it
requires a huge investment into commercial grade hardware," Wesley
explained. "It requires a big financial commitment and (qualified)
people."
"I'm sure there's a need in the
downtown area," Wesley added. "I wish him well if he does"
expand his commercial and industrial business."
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| Date -- 04/23/1999 Business First |
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Schiller Hardware moving from Market
Street
Historic building to be sold as company moves headquarters to East End
Rick Redding
Schiller Hardware Inc. is leaving downtown after 70 years and is
putting its Civil War-era headquarters building up for sale.
The family-owned corporation is building a $1.3 million headquarters
in Bluegrass Research and Industrial Park, abandoning the 433 E. Market
St. location it has occupied since 1980.
While the news might be disappointing for people accustomed to
picking up light bulbs, shovels and screws at a convenient downtown
location, it is not another story of a downtown retailer failing to
survive in the face of suburban competition.
Rather, Schiller's move is being made to accommodate growth in its
commercial business, primarily as a distributor of doors, door frames and
hardware. The company had revenue of $17 million in 1998, of which only 4
percent was derived from the downtown retail operation, according to Scott
Wesley, executive vice president of Schiller.
Wesley said the revenue figure is nearly three times the company's
sales from a decade ago, when a four-alarm fire destroyed an adjacent
building and nearly put Schiller out of business. The fire set off the
sprinkler system throughout Schiller's operation, damaging nearly every
aspect of the operation.
Since then, Schiller has added branch offices in Lexington and
Erlanger, Ky., and experienced rapid growth as Louisville's construction
industry has prospered.
The company has supplied doors and frames to many of the area's
largest building projects, including Papa John's Cardinal Stadium, the new
Southeast Christian Church and the expansion of the Commonwealth
Convention Center.
Wesley said the downtown store will close in September and that
Schiller hopes to replace revenue lost from the closing of the store by
finding new customers among its neighbors in the expansive industrial
park.
"We're anticipating a change in our focus," he said.
Because the park is one of the largest subdivisions of businesses in the
country, "we will be more focused on those businesses. It's an
evolution in the way we market our product."
Harris Wesley, Schiller's president and Scott Wesley's father, said
the new 35,000-square-foot structure will better accommodate the expanding
distribution business, which he said has run out of room downtown. As
evidence, he showed a number of metal products the company has been forced
to store outdoors on makeshift shelving as a result of its need for space.
The new location will include a showroom, but the Wesleys said
they haven't determined the product mix that will be on display. They
said it would not carry the same products as the downtown store.
"We're very good at what we do in commercial hardware,"
said Harris Wesley, who joined the company 41 years ago after his
marriage to founder Alfred Schiller's daughter, Caroline. "We've
seen a change in the overall market, where the coming of Home Depots and
Lowe's-type stores have eaten away the margins of the little hardware
stores. We knew we were more successful in the commercial building area
and adjusted our focus."
The company will continue to operate a retail hardware store at
9430 Shelbyville Road.
Harris Wesley said the three-story, 44,000-square foot structure
at the corner of Market Street and Jackson Street, believed to have been
built in the 1870s, will be listed at $900,000. He hopes to have a buyer
by the time his new building is ready in the fall.
The contractor for the new structure is The Blacketer Co., which
owns the land Schiller will occupy at 11525 Blankenbaker Access Drive.
Phil Scherer, president of Commercial Kentucky Inc., said the
downtown site is attractive because of its location and its amenities,
including parking.
The site is a block south of the entrance to Louisville Slugger
Field, and just north of the growing Louisville Medical Center.
"I expect we'll see a great deal of interest and
activity," said Scherer, the listing broker for the site.
"It's certainly one of a handful of properties between the Medical
Center and the waterfront that is a good property for adaptive
reuse."
That means it could have any one of a number of possible future
uses, including some combination of commercial, residential,
entertainment or office uses. He said the property includes a
15,000-square-foot parking lot across Jackson Street from the main
building. Additional parking is west of the main building, where the
1989 fire took out a 30,000-square-foot structure.
Schiller Hardware opened in 1929 near the corner of Third and
Market streets and later moved to 213 W. Market, Harris Wesley said. It
moved to its current location in 1980. Another of Harris Wesley's sons,
Todd, is contract sales manager for Schiller.
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