Who We Are

Summers is the leading industrial distributor in the east Tennessee area. Summers has been providing quality service for more than a century. The company was originally formed as a small retail hardware store in 1893. In 1974 Summers added its industrial sales division in order to provide maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) supplies to area industries.

Summers’ warehouse stores an extensive inventory of approximatley 16,000 stock keeping units (SKU’s). These items are all available for next day or even same day delivery if necessary. Even though Summers has a vast inventory of MRO, cutting tools, abrasives, material handling items, safety, and janitorial supplies, more than 40% of orders processed are for none stock or special items. Summers prides itself on two strengths, the first of which is its ability to locate those rare, hard to find, and specialty items in a timely manner and at a competitive price. This is a sharp contrast from larger industrial suppliers who won’t take the time to locate items that aren’t held in their inventory and the smaller supply houses who don’t have the resources to help solve those special problems.

Summers’ second strength is its people. As a company, there are 40 people with 645 total years of experience in industrial distribution and helping companies solve their problems. The sales force consist of 10 inside sales people with 161 years of experience and 8 outside sales people with 159 years of sales experience. Summers’ employee team also has two SECO factory certified Pro3 product specialist, one former SECO factory technical representative, and two engineers specializing in manufacturing and operations.

In order to facilitate reliable and consistent service, Summers has a fleet of vans and straight trucks that make 12 scheduled runs a week and are available for special trips as needed. Vehicles and personnel are available to handle any emergency situations that may arise after hours or on weekends. To complement our services we also offer vendor managed inventory (VMI) and automated materials vending.

A customer of Summers’ can expect reliable service of the highest quality, integrity in every aspect of business, and experience backed by quality products and services. As a company, we understand that without our customers we would not exist. It is because of this we value all of our customers and view your problems as our own.

Since 1974, Summers has evolved into a thriving MRO and cutting tool supplier with additional strengths in abrasives, material handling, precision tooling, safety, and janitorial supplies. Today Summers is a thriving company with a sales force that has extensive knowledge and experience in helping our customers solve their problems as quickly as possible.