Eveready Hardware will celebrate its 80th anniversary in grand style with its biggest display ever at the 2014 Cabinets & Closets Expo, April 10-11 in Somerset, NJ.

The Queens, NY-based distributor has actually existed longer. Michael Taylor and his son Jonathan start their company’s timeline in 1934 when Michael’s father, Maurice Taylor, who sold caning to furniture manufacturers, teamed up with Dorothy Salinger, top salesperson for a manufacturer of furniture hardware.

By selling each other’s products, they greatly expanded their sales. With the Great Depression in full swing, Salinger was paid in company stock in lieu of a paycheck. Before long she had amassed enough stock to buy the entire company. In 1934, she incorporated it as Eveready Hardware.
Jonathan Taylor notes that the original stock certificates incorrectly titled the company Ever Ready Hardware, Mfg., Co., Inc. “This is  a common mispronunciation of our actual company name, which still occurs and is a running joke inside of the office to this day,” he says.

In 1935, Salinger and Taylor took their partnership to a higher level by getting married. While Dorothy retired to raise the couple’s two children, business steadily improved as the Great Depression drew to a close. Originally occupying four floors of the original 1883 Gretsch Building in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Eveready Hardware employed 188 men to primarily make furniture hardware. During World War II, the company was contracted by the U.S. government to make parts for bombs, walkie-talkies and all service medals.

“As a kid, my dad had more medals then General Eisenhower,” Jonathan Taylor laughs.

Because of the company's contribution to the war effort, Eveready workers were exempted from the draft. Parents routintely came to the company "to beg" Eveready to hire their kids so that they would not have to go to war. In order to meet production demand, Maurice had to add an additional two operating shifts per day. Maurice had to keep his workers who were trained and proficient, and could not just take every young man that applied for work. He devised a system for replacing or adding workers by maintaining a list of eligible workers, their abilities and hiring a new employee in order of positions becoming available and their skills to match that position, Jonathan Taylor says.

Michael Taylor joined his father in the business after graduating from college in 1962. Soon after, the company switched from making hardware to becoming a direct importer and distributor. He transitioned from sales to running the company in the 1970s. “It was during this pre-computer time that (my dad) brought new ideas in purchasing, expanding Eveready’s lines and becoming more efficient in managing the company,” Jonathan Taylor says.

By the end of the 1980s, Eveready was fully computerized and Michael’s wife Diane, lent her business skills to help update employee policies and hire new staff to keep up with the growing business. 

Celebrating 53 years in the business, Michael Taylor takes great pride in owning an independent distributorship that has weathered many storms over the years. Through his leadership, Eveready Hardware moved into a facility in 2005 - double the size of its former home. He fondly remembers Paul Robbins of Robbins Hardware, one of his mentors while he was developing cabinet hardware and styling the kitchen line. In additioin, Michael Taylor credits Wolfgang Hafele for helping him develop and expand a closet hardware line.

While Michael is still very active in the business, his son, Jonathan has taken over day-to-day responsibilities, while senior vice-president Richie "The Mayor of Hardware" DeMarco, handles sales. Michael Taylor's oldst son, Douglas, serves as corporate CEO.

Jonathan Taylor has been working on and off in the business since he was 5, becoming full time six years after studying engineering and technology. One of his passions is keeping the company’s software technology ahead of the pack.

“Like my Father before me, we Eveready men start in the business early and really grow to love what we do,” he says. “I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to have a working relationship with him that not many people get to experience We have a language all unto ourselves which can only be developed by spending your home and work life together, and has allowed me to say that my Father is my best friend.

"Stepping out of his incredibly large and dense shadow has always been my goal," Jonathan Taylor adds. "With his daily help and expertise in training me to take over for him, that goal is becoming more achievable every day. I’ve only just began what I hope to be at least a fifty-year journey with Eveready, and the best is yet to come, and I have him to thank for it.”

Learrn more about Eveready Hardware at ehny.com.