A humble start, AES was founded in 1945 as Knudson Hardware, named after founder Allen Knudson. The quaint store serviced a small suburb of Seattle, Washington with lumber, ice, coal, oil, and general hardware.

For years, the store thrived under the ideals of Allen Knudson and his staff, who embraced a philosophy of offering outstanding customer service based on virtue, habitual truthfulness, and outstanding customer service, the cultural tenets we hold dear to this day.

In the late 1950s, Knudson’s daughter, Norma, and son-in-law, Ben Newby purchased the business as second-generation owners. The competition was getting fierce, technology was advancing, and market demand was high, so the Newby’s decided to bring in a unique selection of goods not readily available at the time: hearth products. Soon, fireplaces, fireplace screens, and accessories were a large portion of the business. During the energy crisis of the mid-seventies, high demand for hearth products allowed the company to expand further into regional distribution.

In the early 1990s, brothers Craig and Kirk Newby became the third generation of owners, assembling a team that helped grow AES into the semi-national hearth and outdoor distributor it is now.

“I can still hear dad reciting the 3 I’s: Intelligence, Interest, and Integrity: Intelligence is respecting the way your customer thinks. Interest is caring about your customer’s interests as if they were your own. Integrity is always doing the right thing, and always treat others the way you want to be treated” – Kirk Newby, CEO of AES