Over 100 years of service to the building industry
Louis Williams and Company got its start in 1912 representing toy manufacturers; most notably Daisy, the maker of popular air rifles. Our agency did such a great job representing Daisy that it caught the attention of Mattel Corporation, which began buying many of the independent toy manufacturers, Daisy included. With this change in the industry, Louis Williams and Company decided to transition from toys to hardware and lawn and garden products. This product alignment would continue throughout the ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s.
Up until the 1970s, Louis Williams and Company was based in Nashville, Tennessee. Most of our employees lived in the area and traveled to work in territories all over the Southeast. Each week our representatives would take the train to their respective territories, where they spent the week, and then return home on Friday. This was an interesting time in our history as the world moved from the old ways to the faster pace of locomotives and teletype machines. These precursors to the modern era, in a time when it seemed the world couldn’t move any faster, hold values and a way of doing business that we still use today. Although computers and smartphones are the standard in this era, it is the personal, face-to-face relationships and deep understanding of the products we represent that drive our brand today, just as they did in the past.
The big box store revolution of the 1970s ushered in a change on how hardware and lawn and garden products were marketed and sold to the public. Louis Williams and Company adapted accordingly and pivoted its trade into a more refined and professional-grade product line. Since this time we have focused on representing the companies that produce professional-grade, low-maintenance exterior, interior and structural building materials. We work closely with wholesale distributors throughout the Southeast, and we pride ourselves on helping our wholesale distributors and their direct-to-market customers maximize the full potential of every product we represent.
To give our customers the tools they need to effectively market and support the product lines we represent and to offer the best customer service and product training the industry has to offer. For more than 100 years, we have taken great pride in the trust our manufacturers have in us, and we continually strive to live up to our reputation as a quality and ethics-driven manufacturers’ representation firm.
