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Youngstown company is honored by the U.S. Small Business Administration
YOUNGSTOWN
The U.S. Small Business Administration honored a third-generation nut-and-bolts company at the Youngstown Business Incubator with its family-owned business of the year award.
The honor, awarded Tuesday to Hudson Fasteners, recognizes a family-owned and operated company that’s been passed down from one generation to another.
Hudson was selected for the honor among small businesses in 28 northern counties in Ohio, said Gil Goldberg, SBA’s Cleveland district director.
“Our company plans to grow and thrive in the city of Youngstown,” said Lisa J. Kleinhandler, chief executive officer and president of Hudson. “We are still keeping the family tradition of entrepreneurship alive.”
In business since 1946, Hudson Fasteners, started by Kleinhandler’s grandfather, moved from Brooklyn, N.Y., to Youngstown in 2012 and changed its business model.
The company had a large warehouse filled with screws, bolts, nuts, fasteners, rivets and bins in Brooklyn.
But to maintain that warehouse and inventory was cost-prohibitive, so the company relocated here and now serves as a wholesaler, Goldberg said.
“It’s a virtual warehouse,” he said of the new business.
The company spent about $250,000 last year, with most of that investment for software equipment. That allowed Hudson to serve as an online wholesaler without having any of its own inventory.
“She changed the business model and brought it into the 21st century,” Goldberg said of Kleinhandler.
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, who attended the award ceremony, said, “We’re very proud of Lisa and her team. We have one of the best economic teams in the city helping small businesses, and this award is an example of that. We have great public-private partnerships that allow companies to take it the next level or reinvent” themselves.
The company received SBA and Youngstown Initiative grants and a loan from the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. to pay for the software investment.
An SBA office in Georgia judged entries for this award and, as a matter of policy, doesn’t disclose how many companies sought the honor, Goldberg said.