Author: GAWDA MEDIA

Kaplan Industries was officially founded in 1959 as the A-M Fire Equipment Company. But the roots of the company go back even further than that. “In the late 1940s, after the second World War, my dad, Morris, and his brother, Albert, had what we would call today a recycling business,” says Dean Kaplan, CEO of Kaplan Industries, Inc. “They would collect cardboard boxes from the Philadelphia Navy Yard for recycling. But inside the boxes were decommissioned fire extinguishers from battle ships. They had so many fire extinguishers that they ended up acquiring UL approval, which allowed them to sell these…

While today, Gullco International has locations in six countries and distributors in more than 80, selling cutting-edge welding and cutting automation products, the company’s origins are much more modest. When Jack Gully started the company, as The Gully Company, it sold welding electrode ovens. When Mike Harris and his business partner purchased the Gully Company in 1954, they changed the name to Gullco and set the company on the path it still travels today. “At the time, there was the emerging ship building industry and Canada needed some form of welding automation to help with ship building,” says Nick Drake,…

Middlesex Gases & Technologies, Inc. is a family-owned, third-generation distributor of high-pressure cylinders, microbulk and bulk gases, including rare and specialty gases, medical, cryogenic, and electronic gases, as well as all gas-related equipment. The company was founded in 1949 by Joseph Martin, who had a clear vision, “To create and operate a strong independent distributorship that would sell quality products at a fair price and back them up with excellent service.” The company began with a single pickup truck for deliveries and used upside down milk cartons for chairs at the original Everett, Massachusetts location. As the company continued to grow,…

The Cavagna Group was founded in 1949 by Paolo Cavagna and his children. Today, Cavagna is a global company with more than 1,000 employees in Europe, Asia, South America and Africa, as well as a 25-person operation in North America. But through all that growth, The Cavagna Group remains a family-owned company and major decisions within the company are reached by consensus. The group consists of 11 vertically integrated production companies in Italy and seven others spread across five continents. The group sells in more than 145 countries through a distribution network consisting of 15 fully owned additional distribution companies. Cavagna’s mission…

Weiler Abrasives was founded by Karl E. Weiler in 1944 as the Weiler Brush Company in Long Island. Weiler began the company with just $50 and a dream. Now, 75 years later, the Weiler Abrasives Group has grown from a small jewelry polishing brush business into a global abrasives leader with 1,300 employees across eight different countries. But even as the company has grown by leaps and bounds, it remains true to its original key values: integrity, customer focus, accountability, learning and competence, and passion. Today, Weiler continues as a fourth-generation privately owned company under the leadership of CEO Chris…

David S. Pearl, Sr. opened Uniweld Products, Inc. in 1949 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Pearl, who was originally from Pittsburgh but was stationed in Fort Lauderdale in the U.S. Navy, purchased farmland in the Dania Beach area and used the original farmhouse as the first Uniweld factory, manufacturing torches and regulators. Today, the company remains a USA manufacturer located in Fort Lauderdale but have since vastly outgrown that original farmhouse and operate out of a 100,000 sq. ft. facility as one of the major manufacturers in the welding, HVAC/R, plumbing and alloy markets. Even as the company has grown and…

“Necessity is the mother of all invention,” says HIAB USA Vice President of Sales and Service Barry McGrane. Three-quarters of a century ago, deep in the forests of Sweden, a ski manufacturer named Eric Sundin needed a solution to simplify the loading and unloading of wood. Sundin designed a hydraulic crane that cleverly used his truck’s engine for power to load the wood. “He didn’t realize it at the time, but he had just created a device that has driven a 75 year industry,” McGrane says. Seeing the potential of this new invention, Sundin started Hydrauliska Industri AB. His innovation…

Atlas Welding Supply Company was originally founded as Temerson & Son in 1944. The Temerson family had a scrap business and found that many of their suppliers needed gases and cutting materials to cut the scrap. Temerson became an Airco distributor and planted the seeds for what would eventually become Atlas Welding Supply Company. The company officially changed its name in 1978 when the Temersons sold the business to an employee, Jack Englebert. Jack, who approached his largest customer, Cain Steel, run by J.M. Cain, to partner in the transaction, changed the company name to Atlas Welding Supply Company…

The history of A-OX Welding Supply Company can be traced back to two separate companies: Dakota Welding Supply, which was founded in eastern South Dakota in 1944, and A&B Welding Supply, which was founded in 1959 by Harold and Bob Elliott in western South Dakota. Harold was a traveling welder and, after trouble finding a secure source of wire as he worked around the country, he finally decided to start his own company.  He founded A&B from his home garage with his son, Bob, and his son Don later joined the company in 1961.  In 1964 they bought Dakota Welding…

Mississippi Welders Supply Company was founded in 1939 in Mondovi, Wisconsin, as Mississippi Welders & Auto Supply. The company had a network of dedicated driver-salespeople that served customers in southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northeastern Iowa. With so much territory to cover, the company expanded to include a Winona, Minnesota store in 1966, which today serves as the company headquarters. Don Peterson began his career in the industry working for Airco in 1960, calling on distributors in the Midwest. In 1973, the opportunity arose for Don to purchase Mississippi Welders Supply. Don purchased the business with two partners, who were…