Our History
Why “The Hope Group” Name?
products out of our first brick and mortar store in Fitchburg, Mass.
The Rhoten family of Massachusetts founded The Hope Group, originally known as the Fitchburg Rubber Company, in 1933 to provide industrial rubber products for consumers and industry. After World War II, the company adopted the name Hope Rubber Company because of its ties to Providence, Rhode Island, which was then known as the City of Hope. The company expanded into fluid power products in 1960 when it became an authorized distributor for Parker Hannifin. Hope Rubber diversified its product offerings, and it later became known as The Hope Group.
The Hope Group has acquired regional companies including The Leen Company, Bosworth Fluid Connectors, Webster Engineering and Connecticut Fluid Power. Those acquisitions expanded it to its current nine locations in five New England states.
Today, The Hope Group supports OEM and MRO customer applications throughout New England and the world. The Hope Group has earned Parker Hannifin’s designation as a Technology Center for Hydraulics, Pneumatics and Mobile components and systems. It recently became one of the first Connector Technology Centers in North America for Parker as well.
The Hope Group became a division of KLX Inc. (now Boeing Distribution Services Inc.) in 2018. That same year, the company achieved AS9100 certification so that it could service the aerospace industry.
On October 31, 2019, The Hope Group joined forces with SunSource, a nationally-operated fluid power company based out of Addison, IL.