Our History

According to newspaper accounts, G.L. Huyett was founded in 1899 by Guy Lamson Huyett, a German immigrant who purchased the hardware stock of the old Globe department store and moved its contents into an old hotel on Main Street in Minneapolis, Kansas.

Guy incorporated the business in 1906, making G.L. Huyett one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in North America.

In 1930, Guy sold the business to Henry Hahn with six customer accounts.

Bob and Dolly Hahn became the third generation of Hahn family members to own the Company when they took it over from his father Louis Hahn, son of Henry Hahn.

During this time, Bob and Dolly expanded product lines to include pins, key stock, grease fittings, snap rings, and more.

Dolly focused on invoices and finances, while Bob focused on packing and shipping orders, answering phones, and sending postcards to prospective customers.

The first full time employee was hired in the 1980’s to help with warehouse operations.

In 1992, Tim and Carol O’Keeffe purchased the Company. Over the next couple of years, they began adding staff and product lines necessary to grow the business. The Company operated out of a series of metal trailers for the next several years as it grew to include new departments: quality assurance, manufacturing, administration, purchasing, advertising, human resources, information systems, product development, maintenance, information technology, internal and external sales, customer service, and operations.

In 1996, the first catalog was published by the advertising department to increase awareness and visibility of the industry. It was designed not only to list products and prices, but also to provide educational material intended to help customers make better buying decisions. This would become the standard for catalogs produced by the Company.

With continued success came new opportunities. 

A 25,000 square foot building was erected in 1997 in the Minneapolis Industrial Park. This provided room to grow in order to better serve the needs of our customers and employees. Shortly after moving into the new building, the Company began manufacturing finished machine keys and tumbled key stock internally.

In 2001, another 25,000 square foot addition was erected to house the growing manufacturing operations. This allowed the Company to manufacture and distribute key stock, machine keys, pins, and other product lines onsite to customers’ specifications.

The Company grew to 100 employees in 2004, just shy of it’s centennial year in 2006. Both milestone events resulted in a community celebrations. 2010 brought a culture shift to the business, primarily within the HR and executive teams. Tim O’Keeffe took over as HR Manager and made significant changes to the company. Performance management practices were initiated, profit sharing was introduced, and wage scales were posted companywide. These changes were extraordinary and transformational for the business and led to increased productivity and prosperity that still exists today.

A big step was taken in 2014 with the launch of the Ecommerce site at huyett.com. This gave customers the ability to place orders quickly online, view their order history 24/7, and shop our catalog at their convenience. Today, nearly 20% of orders come to us through the website, demonstrating a need to find specialty fasteners online.

Over the next couple of years, several acquisitions were made. 2016 saw the purchase of Precision Specialties in Collierville, TN. The employees stayed on at the warehouse, and G.L. Huyett was happy to have a second warehouse to help lower shipping costs to the east coast.

The Mak-A-Key brand name and packaging assets were purchased from ITW in 2017 and moved to the Kansas facility. Handi-Chek was purchased from ITW the following year, and the packaging department was once again expanded.

The most recent acquisition occurred in 2018 with the purchase of AZ Lifting Hardware in Phoenix, Arizona. The brand was renamed Aztec Lifting Hardware, and the Phoenix location became the third North American distribution point for the Company.

In 2019, the G.L. Huyett Regional Headquarters opened in Sidney, Nebraska. This allowed the Company to add data analytics, merchandising, and e-marketing skills to the team to be more competitive within the industry.

A machine shop was added to the Arizona facility in 2020 in order to better and more quickly serve customers who need customized parts for their projects.

In 2021, G.L. Huyett instigated plans to expand the Sidney Regional Headquarters, as the need for e-commerce and data analytics support grew. O’Keeffe worked with our Vice President of Marketing and Technology - a Sidney resident - to purchase the local American Legion building for new office space. When O’Keeffe promised the American Legion Post #17 that they could keep their meeting space in the basement rent-free, the deal was sealed. Renovations were completed in February of 2023, which included 20 new offices, two conference rooms, an empty space that will be leased out to local businesses, and a dedication to the American Legion Post #17. 

In an effort to simplify branding and mark our commitment to progress, G.L. Huyett officially rebranded to Huyett in June of 2022. The Company also added Supply Chain Simplified as branded content to communicate our business alignment with distributors, which focus on streamlining our partners’ distribution logistics so they can focus on growing their business.

The addition of these capabilities and services with the Company highlights our commitment to embrace new market trends, serve our customers better, and internalize processes to provide higher quality products. The developments position Huyett as a best-in-class master distributor of industrial fasteners.

As we look toward to the future, Huyett has ambitious plans to continue to expand and add value to all three of our stakeholders: our shareholders, our employees and their families, and our customers. In the near term, a continued focus on product expansion, ecommerce, and technology, along with continued prospecting to accelerate product additions through corporate acquisition remains the Company’s focus. The current culture reflects the culture developed by Bob and Dolly Hahn, the learning journey of Tim O’Keeffe, the loving care of Carol O’Keeffe, and world-class management of the executive and leadership teams.