YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY

Springfield, MO

Log in Subscribe

Declan Hubbell, shown here in mid-2018, is seeking a career change after closing Hubbell Mechanical Supply.
SBJ file photo
Declan Hubbell, shown here in mid-2018, is seeking a career change after closing Hubbell Mechanical Supply.

50-year-old Springfield business closes

Posted online

A nearly 50-year-old supplier of industrial piping products has closed.

Hubbell Mechanical Supply Co. owner Declan Hubbell said this morning the company shuttered following the completion of a liquidation sale a week ago.

“There’s no inventory left. We put the word out about what we were going to do,” he said, declining to estimate the value of the goods sold. “They came in to see what we had left.”

Hubbell Mechanical Supply, which also sold plumbing, heating and air conditioning equipment and parts, was founded in 1970 by Jack Hubbell, Declan’s father. The older Hubbell died in 2013.

Declan Hubbell said the closure was a personal decision, as the 41-year-old had worked for the company “off and on for 30 years.”

“I really wanted to make my dad proud,” he said. “In the end, I’m pulled to do something else. I’m in a position where I can do it.”

Hubbell said he’ll likely land in the technology sector, as computers and other technology have been a hobby for him since childhood. Hubbell said he doesn’t have a new job lined up in the industry.

At Hubbell Mechanical Supply, Hubbell said sales dropped off “marginally” in 2018 from 2017 revenue of $4 million. He declined to disclose last year’s sales.

“It wasn’t like everything tanked,” he said. “Like I said, I’d done it for an awful long time.”

Hubell said about nine people — down from 15 a year ago — worked at the business at the time of its closure, noting four or five employees were laid off leading up to it.

Hubbell said he did not seek a sale of the business because he didn’t want to lose the Hubbell Mechanical Supply name his father created, and there was no intellectual property to incentivize a purchase.

Hubell previously told Springfield Business Journal his father “semiretired” in 2003, leaving him to take over the business at age 25.

Comments

No comments on this story |
Please log in to add your comment
Editors' Pick
PBA tourney puts spotlight on Springfield

Tournament hosts say nationally televised PBA event puts area bowling on the map.

Most Read
SBJ.net Poll
How should the city's final ARPA funds be spent?

*

View results

Update cookies preferences