Our History
We've been manufacturing reliable electrical switches for vehicles for over 80 years.

Many of the electrical and electronic switches
and connectors we make today are specified by OEMs, or used as high-quality replacement parts.
You can see our products in heavy-duty vehicles, boats or any piece of large portable equipment
that needs a battery.
See some of the types of vehicle that use Cole Hersee components.

A blast from the past automotive history.

Cole Hersee history
We've always been recognized over the years
for our innovative products.
We manufacture many products that meet
the challenges of today's high-tech vehicles.

If you were to visit us at Cole Hersee,
we'd be happy to show you around
our headquarters and manufacturing plant.
There's a lot to see and learn, and that's why we have many visitors, especially those who
are using Cole Hersee as a benchmarking paragon.


We're proud of our ISO certification, and we're moving in the direction of meeting even more stringent industry standards.

All of our employees are committed to delivering highly reliable components that meet your needs, whether you need a replacement,
or you're an engineer who needs a modified item
or an entirely new concept.

Cole Hersee is a third generation family business that to this day follows sound principles that were established in the early days:

Cole Hersee will constantly develop new, innovative products.

Cole Hersee will manufacture only the finest, solidly reliable products.

Although we take 1924 as the date
when the company established the form it is in today, our antecedents go back even further
to the dawn of the automobile age.

The Henry Cole Company was founded in 1914,
as a manufacturer of lamp sockets and other equipment.
The FC Hersee Company was an old-established machine shop.
The resources of these companies were
combined in the 1930's and the company name changed in 1941 to the name that is synonymous today with high quality: Cole Hersee.

In the old days, switches were switches.
All of them could be fitted onto any vehicle,
so that our switches were fitted into cars, trucks, farm tractors, boats, and even airplanes.
Nowadays our focus is narrower, and does not include the car or aerospace industries,
which have highly specialized needs.
However, our market has grown to include equipment that was unheard of in the old days,
such as golf carts, airport luggage-handling equipment, roadbuilding graders, cherrypickers, behemoth mining trucks, and a myriad of types of vehicles that construct and enable
today's business environment.

Throughout our history, Cole Hersee has pioneered the development of hundreds of new products
and collaborated on many industry standards
that are essential to the industry today.

During World War II, Cole Hersee focused on supplying equipment for military vehicles,
where the qualities of durability and reliability
were paramount.
After the war, demands grew even more,
and Cole Hersee expanded its reach
to include a network of independent sales agencies which could concentrate on maximizing sales
and maintaining a high level
of personalized customer service.

With the burgeoning growth in the Eisenhower years, Cole Hersee expanded into
the aftermarket business to provide
replacement parts to car and truck owners.

Since that date, Cole Hersee has moved in the direction of manufacturing parts
to even higher quality tolerances,
and by building greater flexibility into the manufacturing process.
Our aim is to provide parts of the highest quality, at fair prices, in the shortest possible time.

Into the Future
We are placing an added emphasis on
continuous improvement, not only in manufacturing, but in all other aspects
of our business.

Cole Hersee is now utilizing
manufacturing techniques that are key to
delivering high levels of customer service. Processes have been put in place
that will propel us to the lofty goal of
becoming a 'world-class manufacturer.'

ISO 9001

QS 2000

Another Edsel
Nobody wants to be associated with the Ford Edsel, because it was a notable failure. If you study Marketing 101 nowadays, you're sure to have this egregious example brought to your attention. Launched in 1957, this car was supposed to fill the gap in Ford's offering as a mid-range car. Unfortunately the design was too futuristic
(or quirky?), and it was launched at the start of an economic downturn - which didn't help.

At Cole Hersee we're proud of our association!
We made the switches for the dash.
Recently we discovered a complete dashboard
in our archives - see the picture below. The horizontal toggle switches are ours.
The dash incorporates a snazzy speedometer
(not ours), and rock-era styling.
The dash is a heavy aluminum casting that must have cost quite a lot of money to produce and assemble.

Cole Hersee used to make switches for many US cars. At one time we made all the switches for Chrysler. Over the years we have changed to becoming a specialist in very high-quality switches and connectors for demanding applications, where total reliability is paramount. Applications like heavy trucks, construction vehicles and boats.

Cole Hersee works closely with OEM design engineers to develop the next generation of switching, with technologies such as membrane switches, multiplexing and optoelectronic switching.
Our engineers would be happy to talk to your engineers. Email us.
We wish you the best of luck with your application, and (dare we say it?) we sincerely hope it's not the next Edsel!

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