We re open to evaluating opportunities, he said.
Sommers represents the fourth generation to lead the company, which traces its origin to Sol Miller, a Hartville area farmer who in 1939 decided to open a livestock auction. After the auction was established, Miller s wife Soloma opened a lunch counter in the barn. They later allowed vendors to open a flea market.
Sol and Soloma s son, Howard R. Miller Sr., began managing the auction after his father died in 1958 and bought the business in 1962. He later bought a hardware store, opened a restaurant and tried other businesses. Some worked and some didn t.
What worked has grown to a company that employs 850 people at businesses throughout Ohio and Pennsylvania.
KIDRON Don’t read too much into the disappearance of the big Lehman’s sign outside the store.
Yes, store ownership is changing hands. But the sign being down has nothing to do with Monday s announcement that Hartville Hardware owner HRM Enterprises is buying the popular Wayne County store.
Consider the temporary removal of the sign to be “some bad timing, said Glenda Lehman Ervin, vice president of marketing for Lehman’s
“We had the big sign taken down to be refurbished … We didn’t even think of it,” she said.
HRM Enterprises plans to bring Lehman’s into its family of businesses that include Hartville Hardware, Hartville Kitchen, Hartville Marketplace, and Top Advantage Surfaces in Stark County. Internally, Lehman’s is calling the acquisition a “partnership,” according to Ervin.