Founded in 1998, Service Partners acquired some 40 businesses before being purchased itself by Masco in 2002. If you can't stand the heat, try getting better insulation from Service Partners. Through some 55 centers in about 30 states, the firm is a leading distributor of residential fiberglass insulation and related products, including fireplaces, roofing, gutters, shelving, drywall, and acoustical ceiling material. Contractors and home improvement retailers are Service Partners' primary customers. It also runs more than a dozen laminating facilities that produce insulation for use in prefabricated buildings, as well as a training center where contractors learn how to install the company's products.

Duckwall-ALCO Stores, Inc. operates as a regional broad line retailer in the central United States. The company operates ALCO stores that offer a line of merchandise consisting of approximately 35,000 items, including automotive, candy, crafts, domestics, electronics, fabrics, furniture, hardware, jewelry, pre-recorded music and video, and stationery products, as well as health and beauty aids, housewares, sporting goods, seasonal items, and toys. It also offers ladies', men's, and children's apparel and shoes. In addition, the company also operates Duckwall stores, which offer a limited selection of merchandise. As of February 16, 2010, it operated 258 stores in 23 states in the central United States. The company was founded in 1901 and is based in Abilene, Kansas.

Fellow countryman John Scheepers founded the company in 1905; he made the tulip the symbol of spring and came to be known as The Tulip King. John Scheepers isn't sheepish about its specialty. The company sells more than 700 varieties of tulips, narcissi, lilies, amaryllis, and rare and unusual Dutch bulbs through catalogs and online. It also sells bulb food and offers tips and planting information on its Web site. Company president Jan Ohms owns John Scheepers and sister company Van Engelen, a bulb wholesaler. Ohms is a fourth generation bulb specialist from Holland.

GN Hello Direct, Inc. was acquired in 2000 by GN Netcom, a Denmark-based maker of hands-free telecom equipment. Ah, the poetic justice GN Hello Direct delivers. The company sells telephones and accessories (including headsets and amplifiers) to small and midsized businesses and the very telemarketers who ring you just when dinner is served. It also sells the phones that screen those annoying telemarketer calls, as well as recording, distance-conferencing, mobile navigation, and VoIP products. More than 50 major brands are represented in the firm's inventory, including AT&T, Panasonic, and Motorola, plus its own Hello Direct and GN Netcom labels. Products are sold through GN Hello Direct's catalog and website.

Handy Hardware Wholesale was founded in 1961 with 13 members seeking to gain competitive advantage against large businesses and discount chains. Handy Hardware Wholesale has been grabbing market share from Ace Hardware since John Madden was a junior college coach. The company is a cooperative that provides more than 1,100 member-dealers in 10 mostly Southern states as well as in Central America with retail merchandise, primarily hardware, and building materials. The company's inventory also includes nursery, marine, and automotive products. The cooperative operates a central warehouse in Houston and keeps a fleet of more than 100 trailers for delivery.

Launched in 1993 in the UK, QVC UK's TV announcers reveal and demonstrate everything from fluffy toys and collectors' knives to jewelry and fashion. About 15,000 products come from such manufacturers as Panasonic, Hush Puppies, Canon, Birkenstock, and Samsung reaching most homes receiving cable, direct broadcast, or satellite programming throughout England, Ireland, and Scotland. The company is the UK arm of QVC, Inc., part of Liberty Media's Liberty Interactive Group. "Quality, value, and convenience," better known as QVC, the Shopping Channel, is famous for its diversity of weird and wonderful objects sold by presenters such as Simon Biagi and and Alison Keenan, over both the telly and the Internet.

Named for the English port that once supplied its imported goods, Mexico's El Puerto de Liverpool offers clothing for men, women, and children, as well as appliances, consumer electronics, home furnishings, and more. With some 65 department stores (divided between the Liverpool and Fabrica de Francia names) in Mexico's largest cities, the company's upper-income customer base remains essentially unchanged from 1847, when young Juan Bautista Ebrard began selling clothes from a Mexico City market stall. Liverpool also owns and manages shopping malls in its home country and is one of the largest issuers of credit cards in Mexico. The company has expanded by buying malls and opening new stores throughout Mexico.

Established in 1940, USG is a subsidiary of Colonial Commercial. Though Universal Supply Group (USG) doesn't supply the entire universe, it does have HVAC in the tri-state area covered. Through about 10 locations in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, Universal Supply Group, Inc. distributes air conditioning, heating, and ventilation equipment and supplies. Its Universal Energy Products division designs and sells systems and control panels for energy conservation along with indoor air quality equipment while its Goldman Universal division distributes appliances to retail stores in the region. USG also offers training and climate control consulting for contractors and building engineers.

Tacony manufactures and distributes products in four business areas: sewing, home floor care, commercial floor care, and ceiling fans and lighting from about 10 distribution centers in the US. Tacony company's offerings bear such brands as Baby Lock (sergers and sewing machines), Koala Studios (sewing and craft furniture), Powr-Flite (janitorial equipment), Regency (ceiling fans and lighting), Riccar (vacuum cleaners), and Simplicity (vacuum cleaners). It also runs the Vacuum Cleaner Museum and Factory Outlet, which opened in 2009, in St. James, Missouri. Still a family-owned business, Nick Tacony, father of president Ken Tacony, founded Tacony company in 1946.

Through its eponymous print catalog and e-commerce site, Dr. Leonard's Healthcare Corp. offers a variety of health products aimed at seniors, along with clothing, collectibles, exercise equipment, home furnishings, housewares, and shoes. It also runs Carol Wright Gifts, an affiliated catalog and online retailer that sells similar merchandise as well as kitchen gadgets, travel items, gardening supplies, and holiday gifts. The company was established in 1979 by Dr. Leonard Feldman, and it operates as a subsidiary of direct marketing giant AmeriMark Holdings.

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