Author: GAWDA MEDIA

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…

A boat’s engine problems laid the unlikely foundation of Huber Supply Company. Elmer Smith was on a boat trip on Lake Erie one weekend when his boat developed engine trouble. He was stranded at a boat works outside of Port Clinton, Ohio, that wouldn’t be open until the following Monday. However, Nelson Schmidt, who was the son of the owner of the boat shop, worked all day and night to help get Smith’s boat up and running. Elmer was so impressed that he told Nelson that if he was ever in Minneapolis looking for work as a welder to look…

Dale Oxygen, Inc. has been a family owned and operated business since the company was founded in 1939. Harry W. Bennear founded the company after working as a welder in the Pittsburgh area during the 1930s. In 1937, Bennear moved to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, to work alongside a relative for the Air Reduction Company. Through connections made at the Air Reduction Company, Harry became an authorized Airco distributor and opened Dale Oxygen, Inc. in the Dale section of Johnstown. He began by selling and delivering Oxygen and Acetylene gas cylinders, oxy/fuel torches and welding electrodes for welding and cutting applications. In…

Robert Norman Goss founded R.N. Goss Gas Products during the Great Depression in 1934 in Oil City, Pennsylvania. Just one year prior, unemployment had risen from 3% to 25% of the nation’s workforce. The original site of Goss Gas was on Seventh Street in Oil City. At the time, no propane or welding cylinders were filled on site. Goss Gas moved to its current location in Reno, Pennsylvania in 1960, shortly after N. Grant Goss joined his brother in business. Together, they operated Goss Gas until the early 1970s. The third generation of the family joined the business in 1974,…

Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company was founded in 1929 in Auburn, Maine, by Joseph W. Albiston under the name Maine Gas Service. The company provided sales and service to home propane customers. Throughout its history, Maine Oxy has been dedicated to providing quality products at competitive prices, superior safety solutions and exceptional customer service. Since its founding, the company has expanded outside of Auburn to include several locations in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Vermont. In 2015, Maine Oxy acquired three locations in Canada, under the name VAC Oxy. In total, the company now operates 19 retail locations throughout New England…