Our History
ToolAndDie.com
is sponsored by Clark & Osborne.
Clark & Osborne was
founded in Indiana in 1940. Merrill Clark, a salesman of abrasive
grinding wheels, and Gilbert Osborne, an independent manufacturers'
representative, teamed up in 1944 and later added a third partner,
Lyle Hyland who was a salesman of industrial supplies.
In the early days, Clark
& Osborne specialized in the sale of die supplies, screw-machine
tooling, grinding wheels, gages, air tools, and cutting tools. Some
of the products sold back then were Abrasive diamond dressers,
Everede boring bars, and Superior die sets. The three partners
worked out of a spare bedroom in Gil Osborne's home with Frances
Osborne, Gil’s wife, answering the phones, picking up the mail and
keeping the books.
In the late 1940s,
C&O moved to a two-room office in the Indianapolis suburb of
Broad Ripple and hired a full-time office manager. The original
three partners remained strictly manufacturers representatives,
avoiding products that required them to become distributors. As Gil
Osborne once said, "Without an inventory to worry about, when
the Depression comes back we can lock the doors and walk away."
During the 1950s the
three original partners retired one-by-one and their places were
taken by two sons and a son-in-law; Bob Clark, Dick Osborne and Joe
Vanderfleet. It was under the second generation of partners that
C&O teamed up with Dayton Progress. After a year or so with
Dayton, C&0 realized that they had been propelled "big
time" into the die supply business by the strong and
ever-increasing Dayton sales. It was clear to the C&0 team that
Dayton, under the dynamic leadership of Bob Gargrave and others, was
going to be the leader in punches and dies. C&0 concentrated
heavily on Dayton, Superior, and other tool & die related lines
and soon became among the nations top tool & die distributors.
Clark & Osborne went
through many growing pains with non-standardized components, the
reluctance of old-time tool makers to use "store-bought"
die supplies, and constant competition but C&O eventually
prevailed. As Dayton, Superior, and the other suppliers grew, so did
C&0 by adding more people, inventory, and a location in
Louisville called Clark & Osborne-Kentucky.
Over the years, C&0
refocused on products for tool & die making, mold making,
special machine building, jigs & fixtures, and EDM by teaming up
with top suppliers like Belmont Equipment, Forward Industries, IEM,
Kaller, Lamina, Oberg Carbide, Ready Technology, Unittool, and
Wolverine.
In the 1970s to 1980s,
the second generation of partners retired one-by-one and history
repeated itself when, for a second time, two sons and a son-in-law
took their places; Jack Clark, Gary Osborne and Dennis Paternoster.
Since then, C&0 has continued to prosper by increasing sales
regularly, adding more office and warehouse space, adding more
employees and new customers, increasing inventories, and adding new
and more comprehensive product lines.
At present C&0 is
now in its third generation of family ownership and has trained
salespeople who travel to assist customers in Indiana, Kentucky,
Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio. Skilled employees operate customer
service, warehousing, accounting, management information systems,
and personnel. And despite what Gil Osborne said, the Depression
hasn’t come back - yet.
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