The Company
The Company is now in its 110th Year of Operation. The firm of A.H.Pierce started in 1898 in Sydney by Albert Henry Pierce.  The company has weathered two world wars, the great depression in the 1920's and has seen the birth and death of many similar companies. Its survival is, to a large part, due to the good will generated by its representatives over the years and its ability to respond to the ever changing needs of its clients.  The company endeavors to provide the best possible service to its customers whilst providing high quality, competitively priced goods to meet customers’ needs. The Company is now owned and managed by three of the grandchildren of Albert Henry Pierce.

The Founder

Albert Henry Pierce founder of A H Pierce

Albert Henry Pierce was born in Australia and was educated at Hawkesbury Agricultural College. He married Julia Goldman "Goldie" who was also born in Australia. Albert and Goldie had three children, a son Albert Arthur Pierce, a daughter Jewel Pierce (later Jewel Brancourt) and Harold Roy Pierce. His first mode of transport was a horse and sulky. He would use the horse and sulky to visit the local dairies and Municipalities to sell his goods before he branched out into the country. Mr. Pierce made friends with everybody. One of his main features was that he liked to tell a joke – and he laughed at his own jokes. He was 180 centimetres tall which was fairly tall for those days. Mr. A.H.Pierce died in 1922, although his mother lived to a ripe old age of around ninety. Immediately after his death the great depression started.

Harold Roy Pierce (son of Albert Henry Pierce) was employed by the company for 62 years and was Managing Director for most of this time until his death in 1991.

In 1995 Harold Pierce’s son Douglas Pierce became Managing Director.

Mrs Valerie Johnstone (nee Pierce) daughter of Harold Pierce took over as Managing Director in April 2001.

The current Sales Manager / Director is Sean Ryan – the adopted son of Harold Pierce.

Early Products
For most of the period between 1898 and 1995 the company has been a wholesaler distributor of hardware. When he started the company in 1898 Albert Henry Pierce sold mainly greasy hemp packing, steam packing and lubricating oils, cotton cleaning waste, brooms and brushware. With the construction of many sewerage treatment works around the late 1940’s the company was asked to manufacture various lines of brushware and to manufacture sewer rods for the cleansing of treatment works and reticulation pipelines. The sewerage treatment works required sewage effluent to have a certain pH. A.H Pierce Pty Ltd supplied all the testing equipment. The company progressively increased its range of products and up until 1995 supplied local councils with all manner of hardware including brooms, brushes, cotton waste, disinfectants, deodorants, shovels, axes, gardening tools, road signs, barricades, lamps, personal safety clothing, various water treatment products such as swimming pool chemicals and testing equipment and many other products. In 1938 the Company commenced supplying equipment to swimming pools. Since 1995 the company has become almost exclusively dedicated to supplying products for the swimming pool industry.

Location of Company
Albert Henry Pierce rented his first building in Sussex Street Sydney. In about 1915 he moved the business to 36 Harrington Street Millers Point, just off Argyle Street. The warehouse was 3 stories high with a basement. Goods had to be winched up and down by hand to and from the loading dock. About 1962 the company moved to a single level warehouse in York Street North (later renamed Cumberland St) Sydney. In July 1989 the company moved to its current location at 33 Christina Road Villawood New South Wales.

Travelling in the 1920's
Mr. A.H. Pierce travelled throughout New South Wales to all the shire and municipal councils. His dress was always a Donegal Tweed suit with a flower in his lapel. His mode of travelling was by train and to save money he sat up and slept in the carriage. Upon arrival at his destination all the sulkies would be lined up outside the station - they were the taxis in those days that took the travelers to their hotels or around the town. Mr. Pierce had a special sulky in every town that picked him up from the station and took him on all his rounds. He caught whatever train was the most practicable to the next town.

Pool Products
The company has supplied many products over the years for the Commercial Pool industry. A H Pierce Pty Ltd was the original importers and packers of chlorine for swimming pools. The company imported calcium hypochlorite from England. It was a 30% available chlorine powder and was initially used for killing the algae in the channels around the sewerage treatment works. It was then used in the swimming pool industry. The company supplied a portable suction cleaner and many types of suction heads and suction hoses that carried all the dirt and muck from the bottom of the pools back up to the scum gutters. About 90% of Councils had concrete pools which had to be painted. The most suitable paint was obtained from Victoria and was called "Swiftvulc". To this day Councils with concrete pools are using "Swiftvulc" chlorinated rubber based paint. The sporting part of Olympic pools needed lanes. A H Pierce Pty Ltd had a lane that would fit onto an egg shaped lane marker and they could attach these lanes quite easily to the Olympic pool. After our lanes were used for about 20 years wave breaker lanes came into existence. The Company now sells very few ordinary lanes. Most Commercial pools buy our wave breaker lanes. Wave breaker lanes stop the wash of one swimmer going onto another lane. A H Pierce Pty Ltd now stocks a huge range of products for commercial pools including government, council and community pools, public and private schools, swim schools, hospitals and hotels. The knowledge and experience gained since 1938 is the reason the company has become the No.1 supplier to commercial swimming pools.