H&C Tool Supply was founded in 1955 by William Cowgill and Van Buren Hansford. Cowgill resigned from Eastman Kodak to start the Company. Hansford was a successful business owner and industrialist and served only as a financial partner.

The company prospered through the late 50’s and 60’s building a solid foundation of business, focused clearly on a specialization in cutting tool engineering and productivity improvements for Rochester metalworking manufacturing concerns.

In 1974, Peter Cowgill joined H&C. Bill and Peter arranged a buyout of Mr. Hansford’s interest in 1975 and set out on a growth strategy for the future. Peter became President in 1980 as Bill began to diminish his involvement in the business.

In 1982, the company built a new 10,000 square foot facility and moved geographically closer to the metalworking industrial base as the business continued to expand. In 1986, Peter purchased the company from Bill and the elder Cowgill made his retirement official.

In 1991, H&C Tool acquired Hewes Industrial Supply and renamed it the Hewes Fastener Division of H&C Tool. This new division is a specialty distributor of mechanical fasteners, both standard and special. Hewes was then moved into H&C’s facility at 235 Mt. Read Blvd. where the two companies now reside.

The two companies now have a customer base of roughly 600, and approximately 300 suppliers of products. They stock about 27,000 unique items of which 8,000 are for H&C and 19,000 are for Hewes Fastener. They currently employ 24 people, many of whom have been with the company for ten or more years. Their responsibilities are spread across sales and marketing, customer service, accounting, bookkeeping administration, warehousing and management.

The companies service a marketing area that includes Western and Central New York State down to the Pennsylvania border on the Southern Tier of New York. They also work with numerous factory representatives who come into NYS from all over the country.

Customer or supplier visits to our facilities are welcomed at anytime in an effort to become better acquainted.

• Provide uncompromised service and responsiveness

• Increase customers' productivity and profitability, reduce their operating cost

• Innovate and educate our customers via new technologies and engineering expertise

• Grow our company with a team of caring and highly motivated people, committed to our customers, vendors and each other.

• Continuously change to meet the needs of the marketplace, assuring the future prosperity of our customers and ourselves.