Our agency, Herbert O. Crane & Associates, Inc., was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1961, but actually began many years before that.
The roots of Herbert O. Crane & Associates, go back to Atlantic City, New Jersey before World War II. That’s where Herbert Oscar Crane helped his father and uncle operate a hardware and plumbing store, which acted as both retail operator and distributor on behalf of their manufacturers to local tradesmen and contractors.
After the war, Herb returned from Europe and went to work for New York Merchandise, a company that specialized at that time in bringing hardware, electrical, and plumbing sets into fledgling mass merchants, hardware, and variety retailers all over the United States. It was during his time with NYM that Herb became acquainted with Fred Meyer® in Portland, Oregon. Years later, after bringing a combined hardware, electrical, and plumbing program to Fred Meyer stores, he was hired to be Fred Meyer’s home improvement buyer.
Representing the hardware industry has been the main focus of our business model ever since.
While at Fred Meyer, Herb created relationships with a number of manufacturers. One significant relationship - MasterSet Paint Brush & Roller - became very influential on the future of this agency.
MasterSet was located in the Bronx, New York, but had a loyal customer base across the country. That relationship later evolved to our current representation of Linzer Products Company, the largest brush, roller, and painting accessories producer in the world today.
Even now, our most enduring manufacturer clients are primarily based in the East and Midwest, as our agency continues to broaden their sales into the Northwest as well as Hawaii and Alaska.
Long-lasting relationships were not only built among accounts and clients, but also with the agency staff. Herb’s agency grew modestly and became a five-person operation, that even included his wife, Doris. In 1968, Herb hired Jerry Jones for a “lofty” wage of $5.00 per hour to drive the MasterSet Paint Brush sales manager Alan Benson to sales calls in the territory.
Jerry’s career for MasterSet evolved outside the agency until 1970 when Herb offered Jerry a position with the agency on the condition Jerry would operate a second office in Seattle, and a promise to MasterSet that Jerry would work the Pacific Northwest territory with an extra measure of devotion on their behalf.
Jerry worked full-time in Washington, rapidly growing business and gaining new accounts both in Seattle and across the state, while Herb still ran operations in Portland, Oregon.
In 1987, Bill Covert came to the agency to train under Herb, and eventually became the agency’s representative at Fred Meyer and other key accounts in Oregon. Meanwhile, Herb continued to oversee the entire agency operation and territory until his retirement in May 1995.Thirty-six years later, Bill is still working hard, as our longest tenured associate.
As you can see, loyalty to our customers and how our staff maintains that continuity are core components of our service.
In the 1990’s, as the agency continued to thrive, the landscape of product distribution was changing throughout the industry. In 1995, after acquiring the agency from Herb, Jerry formed a complimentary adjunct business, HOC Retail Management, which responded to our customers’ need for field merchandisers. At that time, Home Depot stores, Eagle Hardware & Garden, and others were managed regionally, and had a buying offices in the vicinity of Seattle. HOC Retail Services slowly wound down in the early 2000’s due to significant changes in our customers’ global marketing operations.
It was through HOC Retail Services that the next generation of Herbert O. Crane and Associates started training. Recently graduated from the University of Oregon, Josh Brookshier worked part-time there, beginning in 1996.After a sales career in the world of home remodeling (with a firm in Bellevue, Washington), Josh returned to work full time for Herbert O. Crane & Associates in the spring of 2014.
Josh returned at a time when the agency had already begun connecting our clients to emerging markets in both warehouse clubs and e-commerce, creating and driving new sales through two retail giants based in the greater Seattle area
In the fall of 2013, Josh and Jerry began a 3-year transition that would eventually put Josh in the Manager’s seat with the caveat that Jerry serve as a mentor and remain in touch after his eventual retirement. Jerry retains the title “Representative Emeritus” to this day, and while not involved in daily operations any longer, still provides advice and historical perspective whenever needed. Josh took the reins of the agency in 2017 as the new Owner and General Manager.
Times, faces, and even some of the places have changed. Yet, 60 years later, we are still striving to provide the same high standard of service and sales expertise for manufacturers desiring to establish a new product line, add to existing offerings, or expand sales across the Pacific Northwest. Every day we continue to adapt to an everchanging marketplace while further developing the valuable relationships we enjoy with an increasingly broad spectrum of customers.
The humble beginnings of Herb Crane’s sole proprietorship, has progressed to becoming the premier sales and marketing agency in the Pacific Northwest today, known as Herbert O. Crane and Associates, Inc. As our history of service has demonstrated, we proudly represent manufacturers of hardware, plumbing, housewares, various tools and specialties, as well as building materials to all available retail, pro, and e-commerce venues in Washington, Oregon, Alaska, Montana, Hawaii, and Idaho, as well as portions of other western states.
We thank all our current manufacturer clients and retail customers and distributors for 60 years of fun and great relationships! We invite you to grow with us as we work to create many more successful milestones.
