About us
It all started many years ago when John Stone...
…The current owner of Superb Hardware graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, with an Applied Science degree specializing in maths and chemistry. From there he went to work as an industrial chemist in Exxon, analyzing petrochemicals and lubricants. However, working in a laboratory doing the routine analysis was not all it was cut out to be, so he took his first foray into technical sales as a product manager developing the chemistry for Perkin Elmer spectrometers and Metrohm electroanalytical equipment.
The chemical industry once again beckoned with his next step as General Manager for Hays Chemicals, Ireland, a FTSE 100 company. This was a cut throat business, buying and selling commodity chemicals for industrial use. He worked here for 3 years on a month to month business such was the pressure to meet monthly targets and K.P.I’s.
One day,an advert in the Irish Times caught his attention. It was for the position of Group Chief Executive with National Hardware Ltd, Dublin and Arro DIY. NHL was a buying groupfor independent hardware merchants throughout Ireland and Arro DIY was the marketing side of the equation.Upon interview and successful appointment,he set out to transform both companies from day one, bringing the companies in new directions for example,by increasing the buying power strategic alliances with international buying groups like Ace Hardware and Briccoallinace. John guided and led the business for 17 years to 2015 as CEO and board director. He was instrumental in driving through a Joint Venture with Associated Hardware in 2005 leading to the establishment of United Hardware with 250 hardware and builder’s merchants as members.
John became CEO
When John became CEO of National Hardware,he achieved great success by opening up trade contacts with many manufacturing companies acting on a global basis. This entailed many visits over the years to the Far East, Canton Fairs, factory visits and approvals and joining forces with Ace International, a network of 5,000 hardware stores throughout the U.S. This has led to an extensive knowledge of the D.I.Y. hardware retail business and established contacts for a great variety of products from reputable suppliers.
As the JV company United Hardware settled down to business it was time for John to move on in 2015 so he left the business to set up his own company Source Pro acting as a consultant for various companies wishing to increase their business in the Irish D.I.Y. merchanting business. He was fortunate to have been approached by several manufacturers like Sugru.com and through sheer graft and hard work opened up new business opportunities for these and other companies. He started out on his own with nothing but his skills, knowledge and resilience from battling to do business the hard way.
One day in 2018 John was talking to a particularly good customer of his. This customer asked if John had heard about the proposed sale of Superb Hardware and that it had fallen through at the last moment. John said he had not and later that night he got in touch with the owner to arrange a meeting. Within a month the deal was done and John bought the business outright from the owners and once again set out to make some changes such as rebranding the categories, increasing the range, opening new accounts and improving the logistics from a new warehouse base in Clonee, Co. Meath.
Superb Hardware, an Irish company, is a well established business, mainly distributing ironmongery fixings, furniture fittings and electrical items. We import various lines like tee hinges, pad bolts, tower bolts, barrel bolts, hasp and staples, butt hinges etc direct from factory. Other lines include Sugru mouldable glue, Winbag Inflatable shims, Celtic Furniture Care and organic reusable cotton bags. We pride ourselves in our customer service, the customer is always king, even the odd time when they are wrong! We can source many hard to find products for retail stores specialising in housewares, D.I.Y., gardening, giftware and furnishings.
We supply ironmongery in prepacked form, bar coded and loose if required. Other ranges include pre-packed electrical, CE approved, plugs, sockets, switches, cable ties.
Our furniture fittings include prepacked form of door handles, locks, knobs and catches. We do small packs of everyday household ironmongery items like picture hooks, picture wire, screw eyes, glass plates, sink stoppers, robe hooks etc.
Our mission
Please contact us if you believe we can be of service, we will be glad to help.
John Stone
Thank you for reading, we hope you found the background information to be of interest.
Our value
We are good at what we do, our customers, friends and colleagues will testify to this.