June 9, 2014
Central Mass Family Business Awards 2014: Hyde Tools, Southbridge
From left: Robert Clemence, vice president of sales; Tammy Rawls, technology director; Rick Clemence, CEO; and Richard Clemence, chairman.
By Susan Shalhoub
Being in charge at Hyde Tools is not a birthright.
“If you want to come in and run a machine without (a) college (education), those jobs are available,” says Rick Clemence, CEO of the Southbridge-based manufacturer. But if you're part of his family — which has run the company and its various affiliates since the 1880s — it doesn't guarantee an executive leadership role.
“There's a set of values that the family put together for someone in management (here),” Clemence said. “It includes that you get a bachelor's degree and work five years somewhere else” before joining Hyde.
Clemence himself joined the business in 1995 after working in other industries, including construction. “You bring a different perspective when you come from the outside,” he noted.
Hyde Tools — which manufactures of equipment, tools, knives and scrapers for painting, power washing, construction, drywall work, masonry, glass work and tile work— is part of the Hyde Group of companies.
It all began as Hyde Manufacturing Co. in 1875. Myron Clemence, Rick's great-great grandfather, started working for the company in 1893 and bought it with a partner two years later. Then, Hyde made only knives to service the textile and shoe business in Southern Worcester County. Delivery was via horse and buggy. Production expanded in the 1900s to include machine blades used in factories that made rubber products and processed food, such as chicken. made-to-order blades would become part of the mix as well.
Robert U. Clemence — Myron's son and Rick's grandfather — joined the company in 1930. He sold the new line of paint and wallpaper tools. At that time, Hyde became the first to display its wares in hardware-store racks, instead of keeping everything in back and asking a shopkeeper for the products, Rick Clemence said.
Dick Clemence, Robert's son and Rick's father, is chairman of Hyde Group. In addition to Rick, Dick's other two children — Robert B. Clemence and Tammy C. Rawls —are vice president of sales and IT director, respectively.
Robert Clemence's daughter Sarah — Rick's aunt — married Richard Hardy, who became involved in the business, as did their three children: Tom Hardy, Betsy Peppel and Sue Tretter.
Hyde acquired other companies along the way. Its facility was expanded to 200,000 square feet, but is on the same site it has occupied since 1913.
Painful pullback
The family faced challenges, such as the Great Recession, together. Working alongside siblings and cousins he has grown up with came naturally to Clemence. With the business starting in the 1800s and his great-grandfather taking it over after working there as an employee, “it was different than if we'd started it up,” he says. “At work, we interact more by what our job is more than as family.”
Beginning in 2008, the market was cut in half, Clemence said. The do-it-yourself market — and demand in general, Clemence said — just wasn't there. “The mindset of the American homeowner was so low. No one wanted to put money into their home; they were worried about their jobs and home valuations.”
About 100 employees, Clemence said, were laid off. It was the first time the business had to let that many go.
But at the same time, Hyde looked ahead. With the fifth generation getting older — succession planning was necessary. Part of that process, Rick Clemence said, involved a reorganization that took a year and a half.
“We had a lot of moving parts and families looking at different opportunities in different ways.”
In the end, the companies were simply split down the middle. “My family took two and the Hardys took two,” he said of the companies and his cousins.
In 2010, the Clemences took the Hyde side of things, plus Canadian tool manufacturing firm A. Richard.
Tom Hardy became president and CEO of American Paint Paddle Co., based in Charleston, S.C., and Alan Peppel — Betsy Peppel's husband — is president of Southbridge-based knife manufacturer Dexter Russell.
As for Hyde, with 112 employees, it's focusing on its industrial products — blades used to manufacture tires or textiles, or process poultry. Its specialty blades division is also strong — hundreds of made-to-order, niche products in small quantities that allow the company to be globally competitive. They include blades that can rip open a parachute open in an emergency, or cut insulation or wires for utility workers. Or farriers' tools to make horseshoes.
For surface preparation, Hyde continues to be innovative: designing pivoting wands that attach to pressure washers and offer more control, for example.
Being family, Clemence said, adds a deeper dynamic to the company, and allows them to “form the culture in ways that fit our family value system.”
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