History

Beginnings

Hufcor Inc. was founded in 1900 as Hough Shade Corporation in South Butler, New York, to manufacture and distribute wood slat porch shades, a product developed and fabricated on machinery designed and constructed by the founder, Azel Hough.

The company moved to Wisconsin in 1902 to be closer to the wood supply used in the products. From the time of relocation to Janesville in 1902, until 1959, shading and allied products for home and industry were developed, manufactured and marketed under the nationally known trademarks Vudor and Ra-Tox.

Because of Hough's reputation and leadership position in the wood slat products field, an opportunity developed in 1949 to work with Levitt and Son, New York, project builders in the development of a completely innovative interior door - the Ra-Tox wood slat door. Offering the first practical floor to ceiling, wall-to-wall, ventilating wardrobe door, Ra-Tox was an immediate and spectacular sales success. In two short years, Hough was deeply committed in an entirely new marketing industry -- construction.

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The Accordion Door

On the urging of many successful wood slat door Distributors, in 1954, Hough turned to the source for a number of previous Hough product design improvements - industrial designer, Walter Dorwin Teague - for development of an all new solution to the need for a quality and acoustical accordion type folding door.

When introduced in 1955, the Hough accordion door immediately eclipsed the performance of the available competitive accordion types of folding doors by offering superior acoustical isolation, cover stability, hardware and operating characteristics.

In 1959, Hough Shade became Hough Manufacturing and sold its shade operations to focus completely on construction products as the folding door market soared.

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Operable Partitions

An additional leap forward took place in 1964 when Hough Manufacturing was selected to furnish the Self Supported Relocatable Accordion Partition components for the California School Construction Systems Development (SCSD).

This also launched Hough's entry into the operable partitions product field. Western Sky Industries of Hayward, California, was the successful SCSD bidder for Operable and Portable Partitions. Hough acquired these lines from Western Sky Industries along with their SCSD contracts. After a short period of production in Hayward, California, all production was transferred to Janesville, Wisconsin, to consolidate activities.

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Sound Control Testing

Effective sound control is a critical requirement of operable partitions. As part of our commitment to lead the industry in the technology of acoustics, Hufcor built an acoustical testing laboratory in 1969. The laboratory enables continual testing of various panel and perimeter constructions to determine their acoustical ratings. The acoustical lab is accredited by the U.S. Dept. of Commerce National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP), assurance that tests are conducted under strict procedures. The state-of-the-art testing equipment is also used to perform on-site field sound tests.

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Expansion of the Company

Construction in the school market began to wane in the early 1970s. Seeking new markets, Hufcor purchased a steel office partition product line and moved it to Janesville in 1977. In 1978, an ownership change from the Hough family to a group headed by current CEO J. Michael Borden, took place.

In 1980, Hough moved to its current location and subsequently purchased and occupied the entire 310,000 sq. ft. building which enabled the company to expand its operable partition lines to include higher acoustical ratings and much larger and taller panels.

The acquisition of Aircoustic Manufacturing near Los Angeles in 1987 improved our West Coast competitive position. Aircoustic and its trademarked "Airwalls" were well known in the hospitality market and operable panels are still referred to as "Airwalls" by many in the hospitality and convention center markets. Renamed Hufcor Airwall, the company currently manufactures select Hufcor operable walls.

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Hough Manufacturing to Hufcor

In 1989, Hough Manufacturing Corporation changed its name to Hufcor Inc., creating an easier to pronounce, easily recognized name.

Hufcor achieved ISO 9001 registration in 1996 and is the only U.S. manufacturer of operable partitions to do so.

Over the years, Hufcor has developed and expanded its partition line to the point where Hufcor has one of the most complete lines of operable and accordion partitions in the industry.

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Global Partners

Hufcor's clients and installations include all the major hotel chains, including Marriott, Hyatt, Intercontinental, Sheraton, Holiday Inns, and Disney World Resorts. Moreover, you'll find Hufcor partitions in the world's largest convention centers including Opryland, Orlando, Denver, New Orleans, Korea, Australia, and England. And hundreds of corporations, schools and religious facilities trust Hufcor for their room division needs.

In addition to our Janesville, Wisconsin, headquarters, we own manufacturing facilities located in Australia, China, Germany, Malaysia, and Mexico. Our products are sold in the United States through a network of local Distributors. Recognizing the importance of global partnering, we have also established licensees in Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, Spain, South Africa, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. As a result, Hufcor is specified, bid, manufactured, and installed in hotels, schools, churches and convention centers throughout the world.

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