OUR HISTORY
The heart of the history which follows was authored by Robert P. Hollaender Sr. (son of our founder Pete Hollaender) in 1991 and has been updated over the years by Robert P. Hollaender II and most recently Robert P. Hollaender III. The company that we are and will become is built on the actions of those who have passed and convictions that they have ingrained into this organization.
The Hollaender Manufacturing Company is now a fourth-generation, family-owned and operated corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Our company has expanded to not only include Holco Aluminum Foundry and Manufacturing operation in Cincinnati, but also a CNC production operation, railing fabrication (both Aluminum and Stainless Steel) along with a manufacturing facility in Somerset, Kentucky. The story of how we came to be here follows.
The founder of our Company, Peter Robert Hollaender, better known as Pete, or P.R., learned the plumbing trade in the early 1920’s. In 1924, he earned his Journeyman’s Plumbers license and in 1930, he obtained his Master Plumbers license. On December 1, 1930, he opened P.R. Hollaender Plumbing Co. This would be the start of the company we have today.
Pete Hollaender operated this plumbing shop as a one-man operation at the outset, gradually growing to a four-man team and a bookkeeper by the mid-1930’s. In 1936, he developed a product known as the Hol-Anchor Adjustable Bathtub Hanger. It was a very innovative product for its time and allowed one man to install and level the bathtub in a fraction of the time it would have taken before. By 1937, he formed the Hollaender Hanger Company at 1833 Sycamore St., Mt. Auburn, Cincinnati, Ohio. In the late 1930’s, prior to our entry into World War II, he patented a leak-proof roof flashing for vent lines that had to be extended beyond the roof of the building. His next item was a lead bend test tool used by the plumbing industry to seal the water closet lead bend for water and pressure testing.
In 1945, he applied for and received his fourth patent for a plumbing specialty. This was the Sani-Flor Stainless Steel Closet Base.
In mid-1946, Pete was determined to form a company to manufacture and distribute the four plumbing specialties he had patented and developed. On October 2, 1946, The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. was incorporated under the laws of the State of Ohio. Two men and an attorney were the original incorporators. The work force at that time consisted of Pete Hollaender and Al Penter, who later became the Plant Superintendent for The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. In 1948, the Nu-Rail slip-on fitting was developed by Pete, and the real beginning of a product line that formed the company as we know it today.
With his vast background in plumbing and construction, Pete Hollaender saw the plumbing wholesaler as the only logical distributor or wholesaler for our Nu-Rail slip-on fittings. The plumbing industry wasn’t ready to accept a structural, threadless, slip-on fitting, using setscrews. They also were not ready for the idea of using a metal other than black or malleable iron or copper for any type of fitting. In the early 1950’s, Pete turned to Reynolds Aluminum, then headquartered in Louisville, and ultimately to Alcoa Aluminum in Pittsburgh. Alcoa took great interest in the product, even though we were making Nu-Rail of an alloy not manufactured by Alcoa. They were kind enough to give us a letter of introduction to the principal Alcoa distributors throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Canada, and South America. That was truly the turning point in the growth of Hollaender Co.
By 1953 and 1954, the Company managed to interest The American Standard Co., known as Amstan, The Crane Co., a company who manufactured and distributed plumbing products and bath and kitchen plumbing fixtures, to catalog our fittings, but it was on a catalog presentation basis only. No stocks of Nu-Rail were kept in any Amstan or Crane branch house in the United States.
It was apparent that to get the product established in plumbing and the industrial field, Hollaender needed to employ the efforts of qualified manufacturers’ representatives to contact and promote our products to the plumbing wholesalers within their territory. The first appointment of a manufacturer’s representative was for the New England territory. The late Walter S. Bennett, Sr., took territory producing $0 to $50,000 the first year of his activity. The obvious success with the Bennett Company of Falmouth, Massachusetts, led the Company to engage other qualified manufacturer representative firms throughout the United States. When the idea of Nu-Rail was born, The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. performed very few operations. We merely drilled tapped and inserted setscrews into the fittings. All other operations such as foundry, tumbling, deburring and grinding, were performed by outside sources. Gradually, to become more competitive in the marketplace, Pete found it necessary to bring tumbling, deburring and grinding operations into our old plant located at 3841 Spring Grove Avenue.
As stated above, we employed an outside foundry to make the Nu-Rail castings. As the Speed-Rail and Rackmaster lines were developed, we had to secure a second and third outside foundry source as the original foundry employed by the Company to make Nu-Rail had no more capacity for products developed and invented by Mr. Hollaender and his son, Bob.
Early in 1958, Pete Hollaender realized that to control both price and quality, The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. would have to begin its own foundry operations. Pete located a foundry on the verge of bankruptcy. The name of this organization was the Grarokett Foundry, taking its name from the first letters of three of the partners who started this foundry. Mr. Hollaender had to inject substantial sums of money to save the company and to maintain the equipment that was antiquated and, in some cases, almost useless. By 1959, he had acquired control by virtue of the vast sums of money The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. had advanced to Grarokett. The original partners sold their interest to Pete Hollaender and the foundry was re-named Holco Aluminum Castings. It is a combination of the first three letters of the name Hollaender and the abbreviation of the word company. Pete was the sole stockholder of Holco from late 1959 until his death in May of 1966.
Pete’s last big project was the acquisition of six and one-half acres of land in Woodlawn, Ohio. Pete, with the assistance of the late Earnest Hund, designed and drew the plans for the Holco Foundry located at 10303 Wayne Avenue.
In early 1965, just prior to beginning the construction of the Holco building, Pete became ill. He resigned the presidency, and Robert P. Hollaender, Sr. assumed that job and oversaw the construction of the foundry which took place between April 10, 1965 and October 7, 1965. On that date, the foundry was officially “lit up” and produced its first Nu-Rail fitting. This was an unusual coincidence; the date it opened was the last birthday Pete Hollaender was to have. He died the following May of 1966. Although Pete Hollaender had turned the presidency of the Company over to his son, Robert P. Hollaender, II, he maintained his position of Board Chairman of the Hollaender Manufacturing Co. From 1966 the overall trend for the Company was one of growth with sales increasing ten-fold in less than a decade. In the early 1970’s, it was determined that The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. would one day outgrow its old home at 3837, 3839, 3841 Spring Grove Avenue in Northside. The land adjacent to the foundry would be an ideal site for a new modern one-floor plan. The initial plans for the present Hollaender Manufacturing Co. building were begun in January 1976. Bob Hollaender, Sr., worked with various institutions to arrange the construction financing necessary to begin the project early October, 1976. The building that is now our present home was opened March 1, 1977.
Bob Hollaender, Sr. retained the presidency, the title of CEO and Board Chairman until October 15, 1990. At that time, he resigned the presidency, after 25 years, six months, turning the title of President and the responsibilities of the CEO over to his son, Robert P. Hollaender, II. Douglas L. Hollaender became Vice President. Bob Hollaender, Sr., remained as Board Chairman of both Hollaender Manufacturing Co. and Holco Aluminum Castings.
During this same time, it became evident that the management philosophies and techniques used for nearly 60 years would not lead us into the 21st century. This was the beginning of our movement towards World Class Manufacturing--a tough time to be sure! A massive training and education process was initiated. Every process and procedure was analyzed in order to eliminate waste. Most said the time frames and objectives were not possible. Our associates did the impossible. Today, these philosophies and techniques acknowledge The Hollaender Companies as global competitors.
In late 1993, we began to develop a plan that would allow us to build a new state-of-the-art foundry. Our list of objectives included a work place that was environmentally sound, worker friendly, and would contribute to the continued growth of Hollaender Companies. It was the largest expansion of our Company to date, nearly 3.5 million dollars. January 1995, the first production castings were produced and the objectives had been met. This turned out to be the last expansion that Bob Hollaender, Sr., would undertake. He died on September 16, 1995. His son, Robert P. Hollaender, II, (Rob II) became President and CEO of The Hollaender Companies.
During his tenure as President, Rob II steered the company through some of the hardest times in its history, with a stream of low cost (low quality) competitors flooding the US market from international competitors at alarming rates. In the late nineties, it was the recommendation of numerous experts that the only way for the company to survive would be to also move our production offshore. Rob II made the decision to not only remain a solely US manufacturer, but to heavily invest in personnel and equipment – this decision would be the key to not only our survival, but the building block to the company’s future success. Also, at this time, the company began to expand its fledgling aluminum railing operation and would evolve into a nationally recognized supplier of architectural railing from coast to coast.
In 2006, Rob decided to promote Marc Cetrulo to the President’s position, remaining as CEO, a position he still holds today. Marc had initially joined The Hollaender Manufacturing Co. in 1988 as a draftsman while working on his engineering degree and had held numerous positions over his tenure. At this point, Marc and Rob II set about assembling a new, more dynamic management team that would lead the company into the 21st century. A group that would not only include Robert P. Hollaender III (our fourth generation), but also an HR Manager, Chief Estimator and IT Associate -- all who had started as production associates on the shop floor. Bob Hollaender had always been a believer in promoting education and self-improvement (a philosophy that continues today).
In 2017, Hollaender acquired Newman Brothers, a local fabricator of Stainless Steel and Structural Glass railing. This addition meant that Hollaender could now offer multiple and more completes solutions to the ever-changing architectural railing market.
As the company continued to grow and the need for more production associates increased, the management team began to look outside of the Cincinnati area for help and found a wealth of talent in Somerset, Kentucky. In February of 2019, our production facility in Somerset became operational; Speed-Rail(r) fittings were now being machined not only in Cincinnati but at a second location. The associates in Somerset have proven to be a valuable resource for the company and have been a driving factor in our ability to grow.
By 2020, the products and services offered by Hollaender had grown to the point that we had greatly exceeded the capacity of the floor space we currently had available. In 2022, we undertook our largest expansion in the company’s history, the $4.8 million construction of a new building that would house the Aluminum and Stainless Steel Railing Fabrication Division. Driven by Robert P. Hollaender III’s passion to see the company position itself for the future, the project was completed in December 2023.
December 1, 2025 will mark the 95th anniversary of P.R. Hollaender Plumbing Co. The day he started, his total capital consisted of $185 in cash and one velvet carpetbag containing his plumber’s hand tools. Much has happened over the nine decades that this Company has been in existence in one form or another. Many, many wonderful people have been instrumental in the growth of this Company from a one-man plumbing shop to the organization that now exists…a global provider of structural fittings and architectural railing systems with over 85 associates.
The final paragraph below remains essentially unchanged from the closing of the original history written by Bob Sr. and reflects the things most important to Bob – TRUST, INTEGRITY, and VISION. His values are alive and well.
It has been said in a cigarette commercial, “You’ve come a long way, baby”. In fact, we could say we have come a long way, but baby, there is still a long way to go. We are proud of our past and we look forward with great hope.