Our History | Purvis Industries

OUR HISTORY


For over 75 years, Purvis Industries is proud to be a family-owned and operated industrial distributor that does business the old-fashioned way: sell quality, top-tier manufacturers, know the products and the application challenges the products solve, and have the product available on the local branches' shelf.



Purvis Industries started in Waco, Texas in 1945. Brothers George and Cecil Purvis opened an auto part and tractor supply store on Washington Avenue in Waco called Purvis Bros. In 1948, the brothers changed the name of the company to Purvis Automotive Supply. George was a tinkerer and inventor, and he loved to experiment with plastics. When he was looking for parts to build his machines, he realized that Waco needed a dedicated bearing and power transmission supply store. So, in 1950, Purvis Bearing Service was born.


In 1954, George founded the Plastic Domino Manufacturing Company to sell the domino sets he produced in the back of the Purvis Bearing Service store. By 1956, the bearing and domino businesses were doing so well that the brothers closed the automotive supply company. The businesses continued to grow, so in 1960 they moved to a larger space on Franklin Avenue.


From the beginning, Purvis Bearing Service was founded on service. George Purvis always said that service is so important that it should be in our name! As the reputation of the company spread, so did the demand for the kind of customer service, product knowledge, and local inventory that Purvis Bearing Service provided. George's son, Bob, joined the company in 1973 after returning from his time in the US Navy. In 1974, the company opened its second location in Temple, Texas, expanding the footprint of Purvis Bearing Service. The additional location, located 30 miles south of Waco, provided more opportunities to serve the central Texas market with quality bearings and power transmission components.


Cecil Purvis retired in 1978, and the business continued to flourish. New branches in Corsicana and San Antonio began a steady stream of expansion. In 1984, the company made its first acquisition, purchasing Granbury Bearings in Dallas. Over the next 15 years, the company continued to expand both its presence and its capabilities. Corporate headquarters moved to Dallas in 1995, and that same year, Amerimex, a company located in Bryan, Texas, was acquired and renamed Conveyor Aggregate Products Corporation. Today, Conveyor Aggregate Products Corporation is known as CapCorp.


At the turn of the century, the company had 24 locations (22 Purvis Bearing Service, 2 CapCorp) stretching from the Red River to the Rio Grande to the Gulf, and stores in cities such as Texarkana, Houston, Pharr, Corpus Christi. The company continued its growth through aggressive expansion and acquisitions but stayed true to the core beliefs that first made George and Cecil Purvis successful. 


As the company grew, new product groups were added to Purvis’s inventory. Bearing, power transmissions, and conveyor belting products and services were joined with electrical components (such as variable frequency drives and controls), and fluid power products (hydraulic and pneumatic). In January of 2007, to better define the complete range of products the company offered, the business rebranded as Purvis Industries, featuring five business units to support all facets of customers’ needs. The original business units are Purvis Bearing Service, CapCorp, US Conveying Systems & Equipment, Triad Industrial Automation, and HydraAir Fluid Power Products. These business units all embrace the core beliefs of the original company while also offering their customers additional products, knowledge, and experience.


In 2011, Purvis Industries acquired Bearing Solutions (which had offices in Houston, TX, and Odessa, TX) and changed the name to National Petroleum Oilfield Products (NPOP,), bringing oilfield expertise and a range of new products and applications to Purvis. The company continued to expand its geographic boundaries, opening stores as far north as Billings, MT. Additionally, we completed our largest acquisition through the purchases of Bates Supply in St. Louis, MO, and The Mine Supply Company (which had offices in IL, MI, and NM). The Mine Supply Company brought new industry expertise to Purvis Industries – hard rock underground mining. The acquisition of IMS (which had offices in Phoenix, AZ, and Elko, NV) cemented Purvis’s expansion into mining.


Today, the company has 101 locations in 17 states and is one of the largest independent bearing and power transmission distributors in the country.  As we grow and continue to expand, our customers find that we stay true to what George told us more than 75 years ago: if you sell the best products, know the products and how to apply them, and keep those products on your shelf so you can take care of your customer, you will be successful. Let Purvis Industries show you how we put these principles into practice every day!