Noarootsi - Stockholm - NewYork
Like many of his compatriots, Jaak Haamer fell into an unpredictable vortex of life after the Second World War. In the dread of the Red Army, his family set out on a journey across the ocean, hoping for a brighter future and a quieter life.
When Jaak Haamer left Estonia with his parents, as a couple of years old boat refugee in 1944, he cut off an old blacksmith's nail from the pier, and this became his last memorabilia from his homeland.
North Star (in Estonian Põhjanael, meaning North Nail)
The nail taken along from the homeland traveled with Jaak to Sweden and from there to America. Jaak struck the nail in the wall of his room as soon as he reached his new home, not knowing that one day it would make him rich.
Namely, he bet his schoolmates fifty cents that one can see the North Star from his room. He managed to raise forty-nine dollars over the years. For that money, he bought a decent hammer and a bagful of new nails - and a little something left over for a hamburger.
With the nails he purchased, he offered the elderly of his little town help to repair their verandas. There was only one condition - no pay, but five unused nails had to be given for every nail struck...
Jack's school years
By college time, Jaak was already a nail millionaire. The parents, whose Buick could no longer fit in the garage because it was chock full of nail boxes, joked that they should have emigrated to England instead (Untranslatable play of words-”nail” -in Estonian “nael”, also means a pound). "You will see that one day I will become a dollar millionaire as well!" Jaak said. And when he was twenty-three, he moved 170 miles away to the nearest town and renamed himself Jack Hammer.
Soon, there would be no building anywhere in the state that had no Jack Hammer nail in the wall. In some places, it was struck in the wall just for fun, because Jack sent a cent with every nail and promised that if it was struck into the wall by the nail, it would grow into ten dollars in ten years. Of course, this only happened if the owner of the building buys from him nails totaling $10,000 during that period.
HammerDream
The business initially went bloody damn well, but then tape, rivets, and staple guns were invented. Jack's business then started to go downhill with a big bang.
Then it struck him that it would be wiser to sell pliers in addition to the nails. After all, no construction in this world is everlasting - what was built yesterday will definitely be demolished tomorrow. But this requires proper tools.
Jack soon opened a new chain of stores with all the necessary bric-a-brac construction supplies.
It is a pleasure to note that Jack’s tool business has now reached all the way to Estonia - so what if many do not know that Jack Hammer has its roots here.
The secret to doing business is simple - to make millions, you have to invest cents.
How Jack got to Estonia
Towards the end of the eighties, rumors began to reach Jack's ear that there was a "Singing Revolution" going on in his home country. Even though Jack could not carry a tune too well, he started to mumble more patriotic tunes during this time. When he got the information by CNN about the "Baltic Chain" event at home, Jack lowered all chain prices by 90% in his iron stores in recognition of this event and promised that when his country becomes free again, he would invest all of his chain sales in Estonia.
The years went by, and the money just kept accumulating. Finally, Jack decided it was time to go home to investigate the matter.
He bought a trip to Estonia to meet his remaining relatives and to attend the celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.
Jack landed at the Port of Tallinn in the morning of February 24th. The year was 1999.
To his surprise, a large crowd with a brass band had gathered in the harbor. At that moment, Jack felt that he had been welcomed back to his homeland to do the things that had made him famous throughout America. It was only years later that Jack learned that high-level foreign visitors had landed on the same ship, but Jack did not let himself be disturbed by this.
By August 1999, Jack was able to chew through the bureaucratic machinery of that time and finally got his paperwork in order. In the same month, the company started operating. The name was, of course, HAMMERJACK OÜ, and its main activity is the wholesale of iron and construction goods.
In 2009, Jack also moved and rooted his business to include Finland and still has an operation there. Mainly to help our Kalevipoegs fight on the Finnish construction sites and offer them some good stuff at a bargain price.
As a result, Jack's businesses have been around the world for quite some time and have survived many governments - both here and across the ocean.
Jack
