Penn-United

In the early 1950s Bill Hoffman and his brother in law Morris Goldberg were working for a company called Universal Restaurant Supply. Although they saw a great deal of promise in the restaurant supply business, they began to consider the idea of starting their own business. In 1952, Bill, his brother Dave, and Morris started their own restaurant su... pply company naming it Penn Fixture & Supply. Starting a company takes capital, smart planning, a certain amount of luck and an incredible amount of hard work. To raise some of the necessary funds, Bill Hoffman sold his bar in Braddock, taking the chance that the company would be a success. The early years of Penn Fixtures existence were challenging. The business operated out of a small building which used to stand where the equipment division is located today. The company lacked the capital to make large purchases of inventory and therefore, at times, had to sell product before they actually possessed it. In the next decade, Penn Fixture & Supply slowly started to grow while tackling the obstacles that many start ups face as they mature. Thankfully the three were able to meet many of these challenges while increasing the strength and security of the business. In 1968 they were able to have the main building constructed. This accomplishment gave the company the ability to expand their operations to handle a larger volume of customers, as well as ,clients that needed larger amounts of product. This also allowed Bill, Morris and Dave to use the original building to start housing and selling used equipment. During the next four decades, Penn Fixture continued to grow, increasing their staff from a handful of people to over 20. To increase the buying power and keep their prices competitive Penn Fixture & Supply joined the ABC Buying Group. Headquartered in Chicago, Penn fixtures affiliation with ABC allowed the company to keep its prices competitive with larger competitors by increasing the procurement power. Since 1952 the company has gone through considerable change. ...Read More