116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Acme Tools marks 75th anniversary
Cedar Rapids store has nearly 1,000 tools in stock
CEDAR RAPIDS — New technology, new ways of building and maintaining structures and new ways we drive creates the need for new tools and equipment.
And Acme Tools, a family-owned business founded 75 years ago in Grand Forks, N.D., by George Kuhlman, has changed with the times.
The 9,200-square-foot Acme Tools showroom in Cedar Rapids, at 1943 Blairs Ferry Rd. NE, is the largest tool and equipment showroom in the city, with nearly 1,000 tools, representing more than 500 brands, according to John Guidinger, the store’s general manager.
Also in stock: Snowblowers and lawn mowers.
The store’s clientele is mostly professional tradespeople, farmers, utilities and municipalities, general contractors and, to a lesser degree, homeowners and DIYers, according to a company spokesman.
Guidinger, 64, started with Acme in 2007 and has managed the Cedar Rapids store since 2016.
The Cedar Rapids store, he said, has 18 full-time and certified tool specialists to help customers.
"We've got a lot of great people here,“ he said. ”We have solid employees with a mix of experience. I want them to take everything I know and make it even better.“
Acme opened in Cedar Rapids in 1988 as Puckett Tools, then rebranded as Acme Tools in 2004.
The company has 10 stores in Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota and also operates a direct mail catalog division and an award-winning online shop.
It offers more than 180,000 products from 3,500 manufacturers, a company spokesman said.
In 2020, the company doubled the size of its distribution center in Grand Forks to 80,000 square feet, adding high-density vertical storage and a conveyor system to maximize efficiency and productivity, the spokesman said.
In 2022, Acme Tools bought the assets of Titan Machinery to add Kubota, Cub Cadet, Grasshopper and Woods products. It is opening a new 32,600-square-foot facility in Fargo, N.D., soon.
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