Taco products have long been recognized for their outstanding quality, field reliability and durability, and ease of installation and maintenance. Over the decades, the Taco name has been, and continues to be, associated with perpetual innovation and important new product developments.
Taco is proud to be an ISO 9001-registered company, producing products at internationally recognized quality standards.
The company maintains a loyal workforce of about 500, and operates manufacturing, distribution and sales facilities in Cranston, RI, Fall River, Mass. and in Ontario, Canada. Taco sells its products direct to OEMS and to trade professionals via the distribution channel through a national network of independent manufacturers' rep. agencies and overseas sales agents. Annual sales exceed $100 million.
Taco products are sold throughout North America, in Mexico, Central and Latin America, within the Middle East, and in Asia.
A Bit of History
The history and progress of Taco is inseparable from that of the White family,
which has owned and operated the company from its very beginning right after
WWI. Three generations of Whites - grandfather, father, and son - have been
active in the company, starting with Elwood White (1920-1942), John Hazen White
(1936-2001), and John Hazen White Jr. (1980 -). Today, Taco retains its unique
status as a family owned and operated, privately held business.
The company began in Elizabeth, New Jersey, when Elwood White, the enterprising son of an Episcopal Bishop of Indiana (the original John Hazen White) purchased the Thermal Appliance Company (T. A. Co.) in 1920. White, a former radiator salesman, wanted to run his own business and start at the ground floor. In Elizabeth, he actually started the business in a basement.
The company soon relocated to Providence, RI, after Elwood White teamed up with inventor Robert Blanding. Its first successful product was the tankless water heater that Page Two was equipped with a second innovation, a tempering valve to mix hot with cold water. By the 1930s, Taco controlled the U.S. water heater market, and the term "Taco Heater" became a universally recognized name in the nascent HVAC industry.
In the decades that followed, Taco developed a wide range of hydronic-based products, including a highly successful line of circulator pumps known as the "00" series and bigger commercial pumps - close coupled, frame mounted and vertical in-line - that significantly broadened the company's core pump products line. In recent years, with advanced electronics impacting the HVAC industry, especially in products tied to building controls and automation, diagnostics and temperature zoning, Taco has significantly expanded its electronic controls offerings and now offers one of the most complete product lines in the industry.
The Taco Philosophy
Taco has been recognized as being a special company, and its special nature
has a lot to do with its success. Management at Taco has always been close to
the folks on the line. Like his father before him, John Hazen White Jr. is often
on the factory floor and knows most of his employees by their first names. Taco
has virtually no turnover, and many people continue to work there past retirement
age. Employees, vendors and suppliers, licensees, and customers are all part
of a very loyal "Taco family."
John Hazen White Sr. espoused a business philosophy that ultimately linked a company's success to its people relationships. He believed in making the workplace more than just a place to earn a weekly paycheck. He also believed that successful companies owed something back to the surrounding community.
In 1992 John Hazen White's idea of an on-site learning center for employees was realized with the opening of the Taco Learning Center. Originally designed to provide the kind of training needed by Taco's employees to match their skills with new equipment being introduced at Taco, the TLC quickly became a lot more than just a classroom for employee training. It morphed into an expanded learning facility for employees where all kinds of subjects were offered - and all at no charge.
Today Taco employees can study for the G.E.D. or practice their English-language skills for citizenship training, or take college-level or individual study courses on a wide range of subjects. The unique character of the Taco Learning Center for a company the size of Taco was recognized by no less than Fortune Magazine, in an article in 1995, in which it characterized Taco as a company (that) "stands as a testament to the power of human capital."