Tower Hobbies
Tower Hobbies is an American e-commerce hobby product retailer founded in 1971 by Bruce Holecek, a radio control (RC) model hobby enthusiast. [1]
Tower Hobbies is a division of Horizon Hobby, LLC and is headquartered in Champaign, Illinois, United States. The company serves customers in more than 50 countries. [2]
History
[edit]Formation and Early Years — 1971 Through 1974
[edit]Tower Hobbies was formed in 1971 when Bruce Holecek, an avid radio control (RC) hobbyist [1] and engineering student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, [3] decided to start his own mail-order RC product company.[4] Popular interest in RC cars was gaining momentum at the time. [5]
Holecek launched his company using $800 from his own savings.[1] He chose the name Tower Hobbies because he was living in Illini Tower student housing when he purchased his first small inventory of RC products and began to advertise sales by mail.[3] Orders were shipped from the basement of the Holecek family home by his brother Mark, a high school student who became a partner in the company.[3] Bruce Holecek said that he dreamed of creating "the largest and finest hobby mail-order company in the world."[2]
When Mark Holecek entered the University of Illinois as a general engineering student and Bruce married his wife Jeri, all of Tower Hobbies’ operations were moved to Champaign, Illinois. [3]
Growth and Innovations — 1975 Through 1979
[edit]After earning a Master of Business Administration degree, Bruce Holecek split his time between teaching general engineering at the University of Illinois and running Tower Hobbies with Jeri from their home.[3] In 1975 Tower Hobbies’ sales passed the one million dollar mark, giving Bruce and Jeri the means to move the company into its own building for the first time.[3]
Mark Holecek finished his degree in 1976 and sold his interest in Tower Hobbies to Bruce. Tower Hobbies’ sales grew to 4.8 million dollars in 1978, making it the largest mail-order radio control product retailer in the hobby industry.[3]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "The History of Tower Hobbies". Tower Hobbies. Retrieved 2018-01-12.
- ^ a b "2010 Catalog". Tower Hobbies 2010 Catalog. Champaign, Illinois: Tower Hobbies. 2010. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Honored alumnus heads Tower Hobbies". General Engineering Newsletter. No. Fall 1982. Champaign, Illinois. 1982. Retrieved 2024-12-23.
- ^ Stephens, Rick (2021-06-01). In Plane Sight: Making faith the bedrock of your career. New York, New York: Morgan James Publishing. ISBN 9781631955389.
- ^ "A Complete RC Car History". RC Crush. Retrieved 2024-12-20.
External links
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