The Story of Hutch

It all started with a hutch.

Long before Hutch Contract became one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America, a path was revealed in a way only curiosity could uncover.

In 2012, Nick Huff and Brandon Beed bought their first piece of furniture together: a 1950s walnut Stanley hutch. The piece lived in Brandon’s living room, and once the piece was styled and in place, a light bulb went off. Something about its vintage charm fusing with his modern aesthetic made an impressionable difference that caught both Nick & Brandon’s attention. Almost as if the space had come to life and the hutch was finally exactly where it needed to be.

One purchase quickly became a passion. Nights and weekends were spent hunting for vintage mid-century furniture at estate sales, auctions, antique shops, and hidden garages across the Midwest. Sometimes that meant sleeping on a stranger's lawn just to be first in line when an estate sale opened the next morning. Most people would have thought that sounded crazy. Nick and Brandon saw it differently: if they were first in line, they had the best chance of finding the best pieces. The thrill was worth the squeeze.

It was never only about buying furniture. It was the excitement of discovering something overlooked and recognizing its potential. Every weekend became another lesson in craftsmanship, design, and the stories objects could tell. Before long, more than 100 pieces had filled their basements, garages, and front porches. They had two choices: become known as hoarders, or start selling.

Using a handmade photo backdrop built inside Brandon's garage, they photographed each piece and prepared to list the collection on Craigslist. Before they had the chance, opportunity knocked. After running into a friend who owned a clothing store in Omaha's historic Old Market, they learned the building's basement was sitting empty. Nick and Brandon assembled their first "business plan," took the owner out for sushi, and offered to lease the space for $300 a month for three months. He said yes.

If they were going to open a store, they were going to make sure people remembered it. Before opening day, Nick and Brandon carried the 250-pound hutch to three locations around Omaha for a series of ambitious promotional photographs.

The first took place at 5:30 a.m. on the Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge, to catch the sunrise reflected in the hutch's glass doors. Morning runners had no idea why two men were hauling a china cabinet to the middle of a pedestrian bridge, but Nick and Brandon got their shot. The caption read: "The Dawn of Hutch."

For the second, they flagged down a horse-drawn carriage downtown and convinced the driver to let them stage the hutch in front of it. He begrudgingly agreed. The caption read: "The love of your life has 4 legs and 3 drawers."

For the last, they carried the hutch into the middle of Omaha's Old Market, stopped traffic on the cobblestone street, and snapped the photo. The caption read: "Drumroll please."

On June 1, 2013, Hutch officially opened its doors and nearly sold out its showroom the very first weekend. Fortunately, there was still plenty of inventory waiting back at their homes.

Hutch quickly gained traction and was invited to relocate to Midtown. Funny enough, Nick and Brandon still insisted the business was only a hobby. Brandon had always dreamed of working for himself; Nick had not, he loved his career in hospitality sales and marketing, and walking away wasn't easy. Brandon worked as a graphic designer at a creative agency. During the day, they built brands for other people. Nights and weekends, they built their own.

Brandon took the leap first and left his job to work at Hutch full-time. Watching him make that decision forced Nick to ask himself a difficult question: "If not now, when?" Nick eventually stepped away from the career he loved with one reassuring thought: jobs would always be there if he needed one again.

As Hutch grew, so did its vision. The company expanded into multiple retail concepts and even a one-day festival, each offering curated goods alongside locally made products from artists and makers across the Midwest.

In 2016, Hutch launched HutchFest, a maker festival that gave regional artists, craftspeople, musicians, food trucks, and small businesses a place to be discovered. Over seven years, it welcomed more than 50,000 attendees, featured over 1,000 vendors, and became one of Omaha's signature community events.

Between 2018 and 2019, Hutch launched three Made in Omaha stores celebrating local makers, while expanding Hutch retail beyond Omaha with a store in Kansas City. National recognition followed, with appearances and features on Queer Eye, Treehouse Masters, in Southwest Magazine, and across numerous other outlets.

Looking back, these weren't separate businesses. They were all expressions of the same belief: Hutch wasn't just selling furniture. It was championing creativity, supporting artists, and helping great ideas find an audience.

During this entrepreneurial whirlwind, another opportunity was starting to emerge.

While working on Hutch's first multifamily project with Katrina Stoffel and APMA in 2017, something clicked for Nick. Years spent sourcing furniture, building brands, producing events, merchandising retail environments, and working alongside interior designers had taught him something few people in the industry recognized: beautiful spaces don't happen by accident.

They happen because someone protects the vision.

Someone has to anticipate problems before they happen, coordinate hundreds of moving pieces, navigate delays, protect budgets, and advocate for the designer's intent from the first specification through the final installation.

Nick realized procurement wasn't about purchasing furniture. It was about protecting great design.

That realization became Hutch Contract.

Hutch Contract brought a perspective shaped by years of experience outside the traditional procurement world. The mission was simple: advocate for the designer and ensure every space was delivered exactly as it was envisioned.

That philosophy also shaped how Hutch Contract hired. Character came first, then curiosity, personality, quirkiness, and skill. Rather than filling the company exclusively with traditional procurement professionals, Hutch Contract intentionally hired Project Managers with backgrounds in interior design and graphic design, people who speak the language of the design team and know how to bridge the gap between the designer's vision, the developer's goals, and the resident's experience.

In 2020, HutchFest and the Made in Omaha businesses were sold so the company could focus entirely on Hutch Contract. It was the most important turning point in Hutch's history. Instead of trying to be everything to everyone, the company committed to one mission: becoming the best design-focused procurement partner in the industry.

With Nick leading that vision, Hutch Contract entered a period of extraordinary growth from 2022 through 2025. What had begun as a local furniture company became a national procurement partner trusted by leading developers, architects, operators, and interior design firms.

Looking back, every chapter mattered. Sleeping on strangers' lawns before estate sales. Opening retail stores. Producing community festivals. Championing local artists. Working alongside interior designers. None of it was wasted. Each experience quietly shaped what Hutch Contract is today.

Procurement is often misunderstood. At its simplest, procurement is the process of taking a designer's vision and turning it into reality. It involves sourcing thousands of custom products from hundreds of manufacturers across the globe, managing budgets, coordinating production schedules, overseeing logistics, solving problems before they become costly delays, and ensuring every piece arrives and is installed exactly as intended. Think of it as a furniture concierge service. When it's done well, it often goes unnoticed. When it's done poorly, even the best design can fall apart.

Hutch has grown into a small but mighty team who has completed more than 500 projects across 25 states. Those numbers tell part of the story, but they aren't what Nick and Brandon are most proud of. They are proud of the people, the culture, and the trust the team has built with one another and with its clients.

Today, Hutch Contract is proud to be recognized as one of the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America.

While the recognition celebrates years of growth, it also serves as a reminder of where the journey began: a single 1950s walnut hutch, two people with more curiosity than experience, and a willingness to say yes before they knew exactly how it would all work.

More than a decade later, that original hutch still sits in Brandon's living room. It's no longer just a piece of furniture. It's a reminder that the biggest stories can begin with unrelenting curiosity.

The company still operates with the same entrepreneurial mindset that defined its earliest days: stay curious, stay resourceful, protect ideas, solve problems, build people.

Looking ahead, the future of procurement can't be separated from the future of design. As projects grow more complex, the partners who matter most won't be the ones who simply execute a purchase order — they'll be the ones willing to bend around whatever a project actually needs.

That's the role Hutch Contract intends to keep playing: staying malleable, doing whatever it takes to push a project forward, and showing up wherever it's needed most — from the first spec to the final installation, and everything unexpected in between. That kind of flexibility doesn't put a ceiling on where the company goes next. The sky
really is the limit.

It also means staying at the forefront — anticipating where the industry is headed before it gets there — without ever losing sight of what clients need right now. The two aren't in tension. Staying ahead is really just another way of staying close to the people the team serves.

After all this time, it’s wild to think, it all started with a hutch.