private industry retail founded 1977 ; 39 years ago 1977 los angeles california u.s. headquarters calabasas california u.s. number of locations 700 area served united states key people eric smidt ceo products tools revenue 2 billion 2010 1 number of employees 17 000 website www.harborfreight.com harbor freight tools is a privately held discount tool and equipment retailer headquartered in calabasas california which operates a chain of retail stores as well as a mail order and ecommerce business . the company has over 700 stores in 47 states 2 offering over 7 000 tools and related products . the company employs over 17 000 people in the u.s. 3 contents 1 history 2 mail order 3 retail stores 4 exclusive brands 5 products 6 quality assurance 7 website 8 corporate affairs 9 investor relations 10 philanthropy 11 criticism 12 references 13 external links history edit in 1977 4 eric smidt and his father allan smidt started harbor freight tools in a small building in north hollywood california . originally known as harbor freight salvage the company began as a mail order tool business . the company changed its name to harbor freight tools . in 1985 smidt was named president of the company at the age of 25 ; he served under that title until 1999 when he became ceo . 5 mail order edit the company subsequently acquired us general another mail order tool and equipment company . at first the company mailed promotions in standard 10 business envelopes . in the early 1980s the company relocated to camarillo ca acquiring the former headquarters of unity another large mail order company and launched its first mail order catalog in the mid 1980s . retail stores edit first harbor freight tools store louisville ky in 1980 harbor freight opened its first retail store in lexington kentucky to sell returned merchandise from its mail order business . the venture proved successful and harbor freight began to open stores across the united states . as of 2016 harbor freight operates over 700 retail stores in 47 states . 6 number of stores 1980 to 1990 11 1991 to 2001 103 2002 to 2012 304 2013 to 2014 500 2014 to 2015 600 2015 to 2016 700 exclusive brands edit us general pro brand logo harbor freight sells many in house store brands sourced directly from manufacturers . 7 some of these brands include us general tool storage earthquake impact wrenches central pneumatic air driven pneumatic tools accessories pittsburgh pro automotive and hand tools predator gas generators and gas powered engines chicago electric power tools badland off road winches haul master heavy duty utility trailers portland electric outdoor equipment products edit harbor freight carries a selection of products including power tools air tools hand tools floor jacks winches tool storage engines gas generators and welding equipment . all of its hand tools come with a lifetime warranty which guarantees them from defects in material and workmanship for the life of the product . 8 harbor freight offers a members only program called inside track club . 9 members get membership card monthly members only offers weekly members only emails with special offers early access to their parking lot sales prior to the general public quality assurance edit harbor freight tests their tools in their own quality assurance facility located in calabasas california 10 which opened in 2010 . website edit harbor freight s first website went online in 1997 . 11 it had a modest catalog of products a brief about us section and an order form for the printed catalog . there were also links to a customer service page with delivery times and return policies . in all the original website had 10 landing pages . the current harbor freight website 12 has over 78 000 indexed pages . 13 it had over 43 million unique visitors in 2012 according to compete.com from visitors mostly within the united states . 14 it sells over 7 000 different products online most of which are sold in its retail stores . corporate affairs edit harbor freight tools corporate office harbor freight tools is headquartered in calabasas california ; the company expanded marketing merchandising and other support systems when it relocated to a 90 000 square foot 8 400 m2 facility in september 2010 . 15 harbor freight has distribution space in camarillo california moreno valley california and dillon south carolina . another facility in oxnard california is scheduled to close in early 2013 . on april 4 2013 harbor freight tools announced a 75 million expansion project for the dillon distribution center which will add 1 million square feet to the facility and 200 new jobs . 16 at the time of the announcement dillon county had one of the highest unemployment rates in south carolina . 17 investor relations edit in 2012 harbor freight through credit suisse secured a 750 million loan to refinance existing debt and fund a dividend for the company s private shareholders . 18 philanthropy edit eric smidt harbor freight tools ceo donates to los angeles unified school district lausd on january 9 2013 ceo smidt through harbor freight tools donated 1.4 million of tools and equipment to the los angeles unified school district s lausd career technical education . 19 the donation was presented to lausd board president monica garcia and executive director michael romero at the east los angeles skills center and occupational center in front of an assembly . 20 later in the same year harbor freight tools expanded its tools for schools program by donating a 100 000 gift of tools and equipment to south carolina schools . 21 criticism edit harbor freight tools was sued by a group of hft store managers who alleged that they were misclassified as exempt under the fair labor standards act . harbor freight won a declassification of the class action . 22 references edit harbor freight moody s report company overview of harbor freight tools usa inc bloomberg business harbor freight tools linkedin profile about us eric smidt bio harborfreight.com harbor freight tools store locator how does harbor freight sell great quality tools at the lowest prices harbor freight tools about us inside track club at harbor freight quality is our obsession harbor freight tools archive website harbor freight tools google google harbor freight tools moving jobs to calabasas harbor freight tools announces 200 new dillon county jobs harbor freight expanding south carolina facility bloomberg businessweek news rlpc harbor freight sweetens terms on tl lausd thanks harbor freight tools harbor freight lausd donation press release harbor freight south carolina donation press release district court decertifies flsa class of retail managers external links edit harbor freight tools website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title harbor freight tools & oldid 738571965 categories companies established in 1977discount stores of the united statescompanies based in calabasas californiahome improvement retailers of the united statesretail companies established in 1977american brandshidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 september 2016 at 19 40 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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