Going Back In Time
Who would have thought that Ben Arkes’s stint as a camera salesman over forty years ago would evolve into the $100 million dollar company that is Hinda Incentives? Let’s take a look at a brief timeline of events from where we started to where we are today.
- April 1970: Brothers Ben and Nate Arkes establish Hinda Distributors, a consumer electronics distributorship based in Chicago. They name the company in honor of their late mother, Hinda Arkes.
- June 1970: Michael Arkes, son of Ben, joins Hinda to help with sales. Hinda’s offices were at 639 S. Dearborn in Chicago – the Printers Row area of the city.
- 1973: Hinda buys an IBM computer to process orders, invoices and manage inventory. No IT department, so a consultant is hired to assist.
- 1987: Hinda introduces our first printed awards catalog, Phase Value, printed in black & white. This plateau catalog allowed clients to offer award choices at pre-priced levels.
- January 1988: Hinda moves to our current 75,000 square foot facility at 2440 West 34th Street in Chicago. All employees participated in the move including re-stocking the warehouse shelves. Only about 25% of the existing warehouse space was utilized at the time of the move.
- 1990: Speidel-Textron is Hinda’s first ‘full-service’ client with points being tracked on a PC-based software for 10,000 participants. Paper point statements mailed on a quarterly basis.
- 1991: Company named is changed to “Hinda, Inc.” to reflect the current business focus, utilizing “Hinda Incentives” as our recognized business name.
- April 1997: Hinda launches our first on-line program for a client.
- 2000: Hinda establishes relationships with companies in Canada and Europe, beginning to offer award fulfillment outside of the United States
- 2001: Hinda operates our first Warehouse Dash program.
- February 2004: The “Undisputed Leader” initiative is launched, emphasizing our focus on quality improvement
- March 2009: Hinda celebrates 40 years in the industry.