When Simonds International was founded, Andrew Jackson was president and only 24 states had united to form America.

It was 1832 when Abel Simonds and his brother-in-law, John Thurston Farwell, opened a small scythe-making shop alongside the Nashua River in West Fitchburg, Mass.

One-hundred seventy-five years later, Simonds International celebrated the anniversary with two days of festivities at its worldwide headquarters in Fitchburg, where the first building was erected in 1868.

INDUSTRIAL DISTRIBUTION joined descendents of the company's founding family for the celebrations June 15 and 16 roughly 30 miles northwest of Boston. The event attracted local dignitaries, suppliers and distributors of the company's saw blades, files and cutting tools.

“The hallmark of a good company is its ability to adapt to a rapidly changing world,” president and CEO Raymond Martino told the crowd. “The Simonds of 2007 bears little resemblance to the Simonds of 1832.”

What began as a two-man shop today employs more than 600 people, operating more than a million square feet of manufacturing space in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Spain, Honduras, Brazil and China.

Fitchburg Mayor Dan Mylott, whose father and grandmother spent 35 and 37 years, respectively, as Simonds employees, said the company is an invaluable corporate citizen for the region as one of its largest employers.

Distributor Bob Mars, of the W.P. and R.S. Mars Co. in Bloomington, Minn., said the relationship between the two companies dates back more than 80 years to the founding of Mars Co. in 1924.

Mars said he still remembers his first sales meeting when he got into distribution in 1976—a meeting in which Simonds introduced a new product line.

“We love Simonds for the same reasons now as then. The reason I'm here is to let them know how much I appreciate the long-standing service they've provided us,” Mars said. “I was trying to come up with some things that are as old as Simonds. All I could think of were our accounts receivable.”

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