St. Louis Headquarters
 2021 Congressional Dr.
 St. Louis, MO 63146
 314-731-4444
 St. Louis Parker Store
 2021 Congressional Dr.
 St. Louis, MO 63146
 314-731-4444
 Decatur Parker Store
 2415 N. 22nd St.
 Decatur, IL 62526
 217-428-7118

 

 

HTE's 49 year Company History - Five Decades of Milestones

January 2, 1959: HTE Technologies was founded as House of Tools by three industrial ‘factory reps’ as a tool and rubber supply distributor for the St. Louis manufacturing market.

1961:  D.E. (Don) Shearburn purchased the small distributorship and soon after hired his first employee, Tom Bielicki.

1962:  HTE initiated a relationship with Parker Hannifin, becoming Parker’s St. Louis distributor for their rapidly growing line of hose and fittings. Throughout the 60’s , HTE continued to expand their Parker product offering of fluid power components , including the broad range of Parker hydraulic and pneumatic cylinders, pumps, valves, and filters.

1967:  HTE’s emphasis on providing exceptional customer service, field application assistance , and carrying a large local inventory led to HTE’s third move into larger facilities in six years. This time, HTE built a brand new 6,000 sq ft building on Fee Fee Road in Hazelwood, MO.

1972:  Divisionalization - spurred by the addition of several major product lines (including Ingersoll Rand air tools and hoists, Zero bead blast cabinets, Flex-O-Lite glass beads, and Pyles dispensing systems), HTE made a major strategic move…. splitting their sales teams into three separate product focused ‘divisions’ , providing more concentrated energy, manpower, and training for each of the major product families…..fluid power, hose & fittings, air tools/material handling, metal finishing, material dispensing/lubrication.

Name change- The 1970’s were strong times in St.Louis industry with automotive, steel, die casting, and aircraft industries booming, providing momentum for HTE’s continued growth. HTE’s emphasis on technical expertise and engineering support services across a broad array of product families led Don Shearburn to change the company name from House of Tools to House of Tools and Engineering, Inc.

1976:  Growth continued and by early 1976, HTE again required larger facilities. This time the move was easier, just a short two blocks down the street in Hazelwood to a 22,000 sq ft facility at 436 Anglum Road. The Anglum facility provided room for the growing inventory required by each of HTE’s three divisions and the growing family of HTE employees.

1980:  HTE acquired Ingersoll Rand’s entire St. Louis Air Tool Service Center , hiring all IR’s service technicians and acquiring all the custom repair/testing equipment. A 3,000sq ft repair & fabrication center was set up offering factory authorized repair service for air tools, hoists, winches, and dispensing systems.

1983-1986:  The early-to-mid 80’s were tougher times for distribution with double digit interest rates and a struggling economy, but HTE focused on improving internal operational efficiencies with the installation of a comprehensive software package that automated inventory control, accounts receivable, sales history …enabling a whole new level of customer responsiveness to special inventory stocking programs, same day shipping , and custom reporting.

1986:  SULLAIR Compressors Added - HTE was selected by Sullair, industry’s leading manufacturer of rotary screw air compressors, to represent their line in Missouri and southern Illinois. The addition of the Sullair compressor line became the core product for today’s Compressed Air Solutions Group within HTE. This full business unit handles sales, factory trained service, equipment rental, system design, and turnkey installation of complete air systems up thru 2000hp.

Over the years HTE’s product offering in our Compressed Air Solutions Group has evolved to include industrial vacuum systems, chillers, cooling towers and water treatment products.

1991:  After 30 years of running the company with an energy level and passion respected by employees, vendors, and peers nationwide, Don Shearburn assumed the role of Chairman and retired from daily operations. His son, Kim Shearburn, was named president.

The ‘90s ushered in a new era of transition and consolidation in US industry and distribution. Demands for productivity gains and quality improvements began requiring the application of more emerging technologies to automate and control manufacturing processes, requiring greater precision with feedback control and faster cycle rates with less down time.

HTE responded by taking on more world class lines to compliment its existing core fluid power lines..including Balluff and TriTronics sensors, DVT vision systems, Clippard miniature air valves & cylinders, Proportion-Air proportional pressure controls and the extensive Mitsubishi product family of motion, automation controls and PLC products. Based on the addition of these new technologies, HTE’s Fluid Power Division was changed to HTE Motion & Control Division

1996:  Air Components acquisition - HTE acquired local distributor, Air Components, located in Fenton, Mo. Air Component’s president and owner, Eddie Tumminia joined HTE and is now the sales manager of HTE’s Industrial Division.

1996:  HTE Decatur Branch & Parker Store - HTE bought land and built a brand new 7,600 sq ft branch facility in the heart of Decatur to support central Illinois’ growing industrial corridor. The branch expansion included local inventory, a well-stocked 1,600 sq ft  to provide bin stocking services and ‘while-you-wait’ custom hose assemblies. HTE’s local support in sales, customer service, and field repair has established HTE as a valued local supplier to the broad array of industry across central Illinois.

1997: New name- "HTE Technologies" ( dba) : HTE changed its name to better represent its dedicated technical approach to selling and to highlight the strong engineering support services offered in conjunction with a rapidly expanding range of technical products.

New corporate byline- ‘APPLYING TECHNOLOGY TO INDUSTRY’ HTE created its new corporate byline to reinforce the consistent theme of technical application support. More importantly, HTE stepped up its technical capacity by adding a staff of Application Engineers capable of supporting HTE’s three separate sales divisions.

HTE’s Application Engineer team has grown in number and capabilities, providing comprehensive design and support services across multiple technologies, including electro-hydraulics, electro-pneumatics, machine vision systems, intelligent sensors , multi-axis motion control, PLC & PC programming, DC electric tooling systems and sophisticated plant air compressor control systems.

2000:  HTE PARKER STORE - HTE’s 22,000sq ft Hazelwood headquarters facility had been completely outgrown despite the earlier addition of three space saving automated carousel systems. HTE’s entire fluid connector field sales/inside sales/shipping& receiving and hose fabrication team moved in to the newly renovated 7,800 sq ft HTE Parker Store facility just a mile south of Page Ave on Ashby. The new Parker Store concept of providing walk in ‘while-you-wait’ custom hose assemblies coupled with a broad showroom of fluid connector products and over $1.5m in hose and fitting inventory became quite a success.

2005:  HTE Parker Store O’Fallon, Mo - HTE opened its third complete hose and fitting center with the grand opening of a 2,800 sq ft facility, located on the north outer road of I70 just west of Bryan Road in O’Fallon, Mo. This facility’s location serves the rapidly growing industrial base and heavy equipment contractor market from the Missouri river west beyond Wentzville and north to Troy. Whether its heavy road graders, back hoes, skid steers, or die cast machines… machine downtime costs big money!…the HTE Parker Store network has what it takes to get hydraulic and pneumatic circuits repaired!

2006:  Biggest news in HTE history: New 52,000 sq ft Headquarters in Westport area - After 48 years of consistent growth, four facility moves, two acquisitions and four branch additions, HTE moved into its brand new company headquarters located at 2021 Congressional. Located just south of Page Ave in the Westport area of western St. Louis County, the new headquarters building is the result of an extensive eight month renovation project of an existing 52,000 sq ft warehouse shell. The complete building renovation planning project involved hundreds of hours of employee, customer and vendor walk throughs and idea sessions that led to a complete transformation of a former bulk warehouse into HTE’s brand new multi-faceted distribution headquarters showcase.

According to company president Kim Shearburn , HTE’s new 2021 Congressional headquarters facility provides a comprehensive ‘launch platform’ for expanding HTE’s overall capabilities in design/fabrication/assembly/service and co-operative integration services across a broad range of technologies.

The renovated facility’s size, physical layout, and geographical location achieves all the traditional distribution operational efficiencies, including state-of-the-art automated carousel picking systems, efficient bulk storage layout, dual computer on-line shipping manifest systems and multi-level dock and ramp access.

More importantly, the new facility was specifically designed to support HTE’s broad and growing array of Value Added Services

Sep. 14th, 15th, 2006:  HTE's Industrial Symposium/Grand Opening - What an Event! Over 350 customers from 144 companies across Missouri & Illinois attended HTE's first ever INDUSTRIAL SYMPOSIUM which featured over 15,000 sq ft of exhibits from 41 world class manufacturers from across North America and Europe. Ingersoll Rand's Nascar #9 and a 40ft 160mph offshore racing boat that utilizes PARKER power steering hoses drew a lot of attention.
20 training workshops were held just around the corner over the 2 day event , covering a variety of technical topics....ranging from vision system options to critical torque fastening systems to energy saving in your compressor room-co-sponsored with AmerenUE.
A lot of great food and cold beverages were served, several hundred attendance prizes ( including three 50" plasma TV's) were given away to some very happy attendees.
The most common comments were along the lines of:
  • Wow, I didn't know that HTE carried all these different product lines.
  • Great new facility...HTE really have a lot to offer both in terms of products and engineering/fabrication/repair/installation services
  • Great event....there aren't any good tradeshows in St. Louis..this just set the new standard!
  • Now I understand what HTE's unique 'divisionalized' structure means to me....experienced product application specialists and technical support for all product families.

Many thanks to all of our vendor principals for supporting HTE with such state-of-the-art product displays and to our new and old customers for taking the time to see our facility and spend time with our people.

June 4, 2007:  HTE's brand new Repair & Fabrication Facility was opened - Over 9500 sq ft is now dedicated to hydraulic power units fabrication, air compressor repair and VFD conversions, air tool and hoist repair & certification up to 5 ton, OEM subassembly and manufacturing, special OEM parts kitting, and co-development of new products in conjunction with our customer partners.
HTE's team of 12 service technicians has an average industry experience of over 21 years and an average tenure with HTE of 11 years- a very talented and conscientious team of 'get it done right' guys.

May 20, 2008:  HTE's 2008 INDUSTRIAL SYMPOSIUM: venue is BUSCH STADIUM, home of the 2006 World Champion Cardinals -
The largest single distributor-sponsored educational forum and product/services tradeshow event in the history of St. Louis is going to be held May 20th 2008! HTE will be conducting 25 technical seminar workshops( Professional Development Credits for Missouri & Illinois are applicable) and will have over 20,000 sq ft of product displays covering 16 major industrial product groups : Hydraulics, Pneumatics, Sensors/Vision/Marking, Machine Safety, Motion Control/Automation, Compressed Air Systems, Water Treatment Cooling Towers/Chillers, Blowers, AIR & DC Electric Tools, Hydraulic Presses/Workholding, Metal Finishing, Hose & Fittings, Automatic Lubrication Systems,Material Handling/Ergonomics, The event will be running from 9:00am thru 8:00pm and over 40 world class manufacturers will be presenting the latest technologies and products, as well being involved in the technical workshops scheduled throughout the day. Tours of the stadium and other special events and prize drawing will be held throughout the day. Please mark your calendar and attend our fabulous event...details and online registration can be found on our website's front page. See you at Busch!