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BY JASON JONES AND ROBBY SMITHFor nearly five decades, B&J Welding Supply has proven that in the welding and industrial gases industry, success is built on more than products—it’s built on people. What began in 1977 as a single location in Lamesa, Texas, has grown into one of the largest independent welding supply companies in the region, serving customers across West Texas with an unwavering commitment to service, relationships and community.Founded by Bob Jones, B&J Welding Supply was built on a simple but enduring principle: take care of people first. That mindset shaped the company’s early success and continues to…

For more than 100 years, Keen Compressed Gas has grown the same way many successful independent GAWDA distributors have grown. One relationship at a time. Founded in Wilmington, Delaware, by Stanley Keen as a food and auto parts store that eventually evolved into welding supplies and propane, the business has remained family-owned for more than a century. Today, Keen operates a network of locations across the Mid-Atlantic. The mindset that helped the company reach this milestone continues to shape how the team thinks about growth. Investing with intention “Over the last 15 to 20 years, Keen’s been very focused on…

Norco History In 1968, Larry Kissler packed up his wife, four kids, and a belief in something bigger, and drove a Volkswagen bus across the country from the East Coast to Idaho. He wasn’t chasing a trend. He was building a future, one rooted in people, service, and independence. That year, Kissler purchased Northwest Oxygen Company, founded in 1948 by David Nordling. The business had two locations: Boise and Twin Falls. It would later be renamed Norco, Inc. But even in those early years, the company’s future wasn’t defined by size. It was defined by values. Today, Norco is one…

How AWG has grown and evolved for three-quarters of a century “On behalf of the more than 860 teammates of AWG across 23 states, our thanks to GAWDA for the opportunity to share some of our history, parts of our strategy and our outlook for the future. We have a very strong teammate-focused leadership team and culture. We thought it would provide better insight into our business by letting you hear directly from them. They and their teams are the ones that deliver the results we have come to expect.” – Jason Krieger, AWG President and CEO. American Welding &…

Lampton Welding Supply (Wichita, Kansas) was founded on October 1, 1946, by Marcel L. Lampton in his garage in Wichita. Marcel had worked for a welding supply company called Phillips and Easton before the company decided to not sell welding supplies anymore following World War II. So, Marcel decided to venture out on his own and fill that welding supply need himself. For nearly 80 years, Lampton Welding Supply has been driven by an entrepreneurial spirit to not only grow the business but to be a true partner to its customers, solving their problems and fulfilling their needs. That spirit…

Like most companies that have lasted for 110 years, ILMO Products Company bears little resemblance to the company founded in 1913. When D.O. Floreth and his father, Henry Floreth, decided to open their doors, the company was a wholesaler of automobile accessories called Illinois Tire and Vulcanizing Company. Later, as the company evolved, it began going by Illinois Tire & Battery. It was through the automobile industry that today’s ILMO Products entered the gas business. “[ILMO] got into the gas business through the carbide acetylene headlights for automobiles,” says Executive Vice President Liz Standley. “We slowly transitioned from automobile accessories…

New Family, Same Family Values How Maine Oxy continues its march towards 100 years By Steve Guglielmo Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company was established in 1929 in Auburn, Maine, by Joseph W. Albiston. Originally named Maine Gas Service, the company has always been dedicated to providing quality products at competitive prices. For three generations, the Albiston family operated Maine Gas (renamed Maine Oxy-Acetylene Supply Company or Maine Oxy for short in 1935) as an independent distributor built on the foundations of being family-owned and operated. Through its nearly a century of existence, the company has been front-and-center for some of the…

Al Mazoch began his career in the gases and welding industry working as a sales representative for Linde Air Products Company, a division of Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation in Houston, Texas. In 1963, Al decided to venture out on his own, when he began Coastal Welding Supply in Beaumont, Texas.  Nearly 60 years later, the company continues to thrive under the leadership of Al’s son, J.C. “Chuck” Mazoch. The company has grown and evolved from a single service location in Beaumont to 200 associates and 13 distribution sites located along the Gulf Coast Petrochemical and Metal Fabrication corridor of…

Most companies that have survived for more than 80 years look unrecognizable compared to their beginnings. Perhaps no company better represents that massive transformation than Mason City, Iowa’s Huber Supply Company. Huber Supply Company was formed in 1939, when Elmer Smith’s boat broke down on Lake Erie, stranding him in Port Clinton, Ohio. It was there that Smith met Nelson Schmidt, who worked for his father at a boat repair shop and was able to fix Elmer’s boat over the weekend. Elmer, who was working for Smith Equipment at the time, told Nelson to look him up if he was…

Minneapolis Oxygen was founded in 1946 by Henry Sahley. Henry was a former salesperson for National Cylinder Gas who decided to venture out on his own with one location and three employees. At the same time that Henry was getting Minneapolis Oxygen off the ground, about 100 miles south, Sid Falconer was beginning his career at Huber Welding Supply in Iowa. Eventually, Sid decided to move to Minneapolis, so, after a brief detour at a propane company in the Twin Cities, Sid eventually began to work with Henry Sahley and Minneapolis Oxygen. Three generations later, the Falconers are still involved…

Oxygen Service Company was founded in 1959 as Wagner Welding. The company was founded by a group of owners including Bill Lund and Bill Huber. In 1965, the ownership group decided to go their separate ways with Lund and Huber taking full ownership of the company and rebranding it as Oxygen Service Company. More than 60 years later, the foundational tenets that Lund and Huber put in place still carry through today. “I think the philosophy that our original owners had has carried through the 60 years of being in business,” says Ryan Diekow, President and CEO of Oxygen Service…

F&M MAFCO is founded on the values of G.R.I.T. GRIT stands for: Goal Oriented, Responsibility, Integrity, and Teamwork. Those timeless values remain unchanged since the company’s founding in 1945. Those simple values, combined with an entrepreneurial spirit that still lives on in the company today, helped propel F&M MAFCO from two men in a garage re-selling Army Surplus supplies to a distributorship that today encompasses nearly 300 employees in 10 branches around the world. In September 1945, Robert McKenna, Sr. was discharged from the Army Air Corps. following World War II. McKenna and his wife, Mary, moved in with her…

Holston Gases, Inc. (Knoxville, Tennessee) was originally founded as the Holston Oxygen Company in 1958. Pat Baxter and Bob Walsh had worked together at National Cylinder Gas (NCG) and decided to strike out on their own to start the Holston Oxygen Company in Knoxville. Baxter and Walsh grew the business one account at a time, as customers were attracted to the personal attention and superior effort that the company made to satisfy their needs. In 1976, Baxter bought out Walsh’s interest in the company to become the sole-owner of Holston. What had started as a two-man operation began to grow…

Rooted in the magnificent Pacific Northwest, OXARC is a leading U.S. industrial gas distributorship with over 360 staff members and 22 locations serving the tri-state area of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Founded by Jerry Walmsley, the company began with his purchase of Northwest Oxygen Company in Spokane, Washington, in 1968. From that first shop with 15 employees, Jerry and his team developed one of the largest industrial gas distributorships in the nation. Jerry remains active in the business as chairman of the board, and his daughter, Jana Nelson, who has been with the company since 1975, serves as OXARC’s president.…

Over a hundred years ago, two entrepreneurial brothers, Walter and John Brant, recognized the need for a gas supplier to serve the state of Indiana and neighboring communities. Together they founded Indiana Oxygen Company (IOC) in 1915, which initially supplied products to the local automotive industry including the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. According to Wally Brant, chief executive officer and grandson of founder Walter Brant, Indiana Oxygen was not only the first oxygen manufacturer (through electrolysis) and distributor in Indiana, it remains the oldest surviving gas and welding supply distributor in the nation. Being the first in the state, Indiana…

What are the odds of a business reaching its 100th operational anniversary? According to Yale University Professor Richard Foster, they’re not high. He finds the current average lifespan of a company listed in the S&P 500 index of leading U.S. companies is just 15 years — and that rate is falling.1 Defying these statistics is the O.E. Meyer Company, a Sandusky, Ohio, industrial/medical gases, welding products and specialty medical products distributor, now celebrating its centennial. The company’s secrets to longevity include a commitment to and investment in its employees, strong working relationships with partners and the community, quality leadership and…