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HEIDTMAN CELEBRATES
50 YEARS IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY
Press Release
Contact: Mike Kruse
Heidtman Steel Products, Inc.
Vice President, Marketing and Sales Administration
(734) 848-3333
For Immediate Release
HEIDTMAN CELEBRATES 50 YEARS IN THE STEEL INDUSTRY
October 26, 2004, Toledo, Ohio – In 1954, F. William “Fred”
Heidtman started a small, family-owned flat rolled steel
operation offering shearing services called Heidtman Steel
Products. A short time later his son, F. William “Bill”
Heidtman, Jr. joined him in the business. In 1962 the company
became incorporated, and today Heidtman Steel Products Inc. is
still on the cutting edge of innovation in the steel industry
and is proud to celebrate 50 years in business.
In 1963, Bill Heidtman hired a young man named John Bates
to help run the company’s daily operations. While attending
Michigan State University, John had spent summers working at
Heidtman and upon becoming a permanent employee, had lofty
ideas for the company’s growth. Bill Heidtman was pleased to
share the burden of operating a small business with someone,
and soon the two gentlemen became an unstoppable team and fast
friends. In the early years of their relationship, they recall
doing everything themselves, from selling the products,
processing them, delivering them and starting the same process
over again the next day. A major challenge was presented when
the small steel operation was destroyed by a tornado in 1965,
but through John and Bill’s sheer determination, and the
kindness of a competitor who lent them a facility, the company
survived.
John and Bill moved the company to Toledo’s Fort Industry
Industrial Park in 1967, a facility still in operation. The
1970s were times of change and development and Heidtman began
proving itself a leader in the industry. The growth of
Heidtman Steel became significant when the company upgraded
its slitting equipment in 1971. The pioneering continued with
the development and marketing of high-strength steels in the
early ’70’s. By the mid seventies, Heidtman was established as
the first service center able to market and apply the high
strength steels used prolifically by the automotive and
trucking industry to reduce weight. Heidtman completed the
decade with the construction of its first continuous
hydrochloric pickling facility in Erie, Michigan.
In 1983, Heidtman employed cutting edge technology when it
entered a joint venture to begin a hot dipped galvanizing line
with National Materials. From transportation and service
networks in the early ’80s to the first service center with
its own continuous galvanizing line in ’84, the decade saw the
company dramatically expand the size and scope of its
operations from St. Louis to Baltimore.
The 1990s brought about expansion in Crawfordsville and
Butler Indiana. The Butler facility began as an outgrowth of
Heidtman’s investment in the Steel Dynamics (SDI) thin slab
mill, making Heidtman a new classification of supplier to the
automotive industry.
In late 2004, John Bates named Tim Berra, President of
Heidtman Steel Inc. Bates continues to oversee a portion of
the company and is still the majority shareholder of the
privately owned company. Heidtman Steel Products Inc. is a
recognized force in the industry with 11 processing centers,
including seven pickling facilities and annual sales exceeding
$700 million.
About Heidtman Steel
Headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, Heidtman Steel is a world
leader in marketing flat-rolled carbon steel products sold
through its 11 state-of-the-art processing facilities. Noted
for their expertise in high strength steels, Heidtman processes nearly five million tons of
steel annually through its Heidtman facilities or through
joint ventures. Its products are distributed to industries
including automotive, truck and bus, construction, pipe and
tube, metal building, appliances, and furniture. For more
information on Heidtman Steel, log on to
www.heidtman.com.
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