Founded by Carl Reed in 1896, Reed Manufacturing was purchased in 1902 by Reuben Wright with money he made selling water and hardware during the 1849 California Gold Rush, followed by successful timber businesses in the Midwest. Reed continues to be operated by his descendants: fifth generation members of the Wright family. Mark Wright and Scott Wright serve as President, Manufacturing & Product Development and President, Sales & Finance, respectively.
Reed is well-known for its professional grade pipe cutters and cutter wheels. Additionally, Reed is a market leader in the development of plastic pipe tools and large diameter pipe tools. Rounding out Reed’s line of tools are vises, grooving and threading equipment, specialty wrenches and tapping/drilling tools, several of which are proprietary. Every year brings more additions and improvements to the breadth and depth of Reed’s tool line. In addition to new tools, each year Reed makes end-user driven improvements and refinements to existing tools. Nearly every Reed tool is the best of its kind in the world, outlined in “Why Reed” statements.
Committed to providing the best customer service in the industry, Reed inside sales people are trained with outside sales personnel. They know the tools, the industry, and the answer to just about any question. Reed's customer service staff routinely strives to expedite orders thus helping distributors and tool-users meet their own service obligations. Reed's complete sales team of Reed Associates, Regional Managers, and Manufacturer Representatives works together to provide excellent service to distributors and tool-users.
Reed maintains a strong distributor network. Reed sells only through traditional distributors as good distributors add value in many important ways. Distributors also can arrange field visits by factory representatives which are extremely helpful for jobsite training. Even Reed's online retailers have brick and mortar stores and are authorized Reed distributors.
Five generations of Wrights have also shepherded exceptional contributions to the community. Reed Manufacturing is a big supporter of the Erie County United Way ($3,130 per capita for 2016), the Second Harvest Food Bank along with WQLN Public Television, among others. Moreover, Reed Associates are encouraged to give back to the community through gifts of time, money and service.
In 120 years many things have changed and Reed works diligently to produce innovative tools for modern pipe cutting and joining methods in addition to tools for proven, traditional pipe handling needs. Continuing investment by the 5th generation Wrights for 3rd generation CNC equipment and a 2nd generation ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system demonstrate Reed’s commitment to technology. Reed is always reinvesting in the product line. The secret of Reed's continuing, increasing success can be attributed to its corporate culture of excellence and the quality of its company associates, who are individually dedicated to exceptional performance and service. With participative management and profit-sharing for all, Reed people, products, and service will get even better in the future. Reed is progressive and will continue to improve its customer offerings throughout each of its next 120+ years.