Ace was created 1924 in Chicago by Richard Hesse and other Chicago hardware dealers who wanted to provide a centralized purchasing organization to supply their stores and others. The company was incorporated in 1928 as Ace Stores Inc. Its retail network expanded to hundreds of dealers by 1949, when annual sales reached about $10 million. After Hesse retired in 1973, Ace was sold to its retail dealers, and the headquarters moved to suburban Oak Brook. By 2002, the dealer-owned cooperative cleared about $3 billion in annual sales, supplied a network of over 5,000 retail stores in all 50 states and more than 60 countries, and employed about 1,000 Chicago-area residents.

This entry is part of the Encyclopedia's Dictionary of Leading Chicago Businesses (1820-2000) that was prepared by Mark R. Wilson, with additional contributions from Stephen R. Porter and Janice L. Reiff.