In response to a flurry of requests from several influential fluid power manufacturers of the day to fill a void in the Memphis market, in June of 1969 Franklin Electrofluid Company was founded. Three members of the Franklin family (Robert, Cornell and Richard) decided to take a bold step and liquidated as many of their assets as possible in an all or nothing gamble to form a company to serve the fluid power industry.

Originally, Franklin was formed to offer pneumatic and hydraulic components but, over the past thirty years the company has evolved into a distributor of fluid power components and systems as well as electronic machine, automation, motion controls and robotics.

The company has increased its size substantially both in terms of employees and office space. Franklin was founded and operated by three people and has expanded into a 100 employee venture operating out of eight branch offices. Now at its third physical location, the company has actually expanded its 3844 Watman location three times to accommodate its corporate operations. Over the years Franklin has opened a branch office in Little Rock (1970's), purchased Sloan Fluid (1985) with branches in Nashville and Knoxville and opened a branch office in Fort Smith (1990's) as well as acquiring AHC in Jackson MS (1997) and The Weston Company in New Orleans and Shreveport in 2000.

While two of the original founders, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin are semi-retired, the Franklin family still plays an important role in the direction of the company with Richard Franklin serving as President, Lisa Croslow, the youngest of the three Franklin children, serving as Treasurer, and Shannon Wimberly the oldest grand-daughter serving as Secretary.