About Us

Leonard T. Johnson, who entered the scale industry in 1897, founded Johnson Scale Company. He apprenticed with the leading scale manufacturers of the day before striking out on his own. A salesman by trade but an inventor at heart, his goal was to produce and distribute retail, cylinder and fan scales of his own design. Len acquired a number of patents, and after an attempt to start a manufacturing firm was aborted by the death of a business partner, he began selling and servicing scales and store equipment out of an office in Newark, New Jersey. The Johnson Scale Company was born.

At the age of 12, his son, Allen Y. Johnson, learned to repair and rebuild scales under his father’s tutelage. From the 1920's through the great depression, Allen and his father sold scales and other retail store equipment, such as cash registers and slicing machines. With the advent of WW II, Allen purchased the firm from his father and seized the opportunity to shift the company’s emphasis towards industrial equipment, specializing in parts counting scales, and pioneering the service of renting scales for inventories. During the war, Allen improvised, converting all sorts of existing scale equipment for parts counting, to meet the burgeoning industrial customer demand. Afterward, he designed scales specifically for rental use, manufactured by the Pennsylvania Scale Co. of Bareville, Pennsylvania. His wife, Jean Johnson, supported his efforts to expand, and became an equal partner in managing the business.

Throughout the 1950’s the company prospered, with a growing reputation for innovative solutions to satisfy customer needs. In 1957, the company moved to its present location in West Caldwell, New Jersey, and continued to grow into the 25,000 sq. ft. facility it occupies today. In the 1970’s, at the urging of Allen and Jean's son, Wayne, Johnson Scale once again took the lead in introducing the electronic scale to its industrial customers. The 1980's saw growth in many areas of the business as Johnson Scale moved to accommodate the changing customer base from industrial manufacturing to service and specialized markets. In recent years, the company has continued to expand its product and service offerings, and continues to embrace new technologies, and computer based systems approaches to satisfying emergent customer needs.

Johnson Scale Co., now in the third generation of family leadership, with over a century of experience in our industry, takes pride in the reputation we have built through our commitment to quality of product and customer service. Johnson Scale, is here to serve all of your scale, weighing, force measurement, material testing, and scale inspection, calibration, service and scale rental needs!