Midwest Featured in Local Business Spotlight

In Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc. by Jim Silva

In a recent spotlight, Innis Maggiore Ad Agency and The Canton Repository celebrate Midwest’s track record of excellence while underscoring its ambitious growth goals going forward. 

With their local business spotlights, Innis Maggiore Ad Agency and The Canton Repository take pride in supporting successful, growing companies throughout the Stark County business community. In January, Midwest Industrial Supply, Inc. was honored with one of these spotlights, highlighting our contributions to Stark County and detailing our mission and goals as an innovative and environmentally-minded organization. 

Innis Maggiore and The Canton Repository’s spotlight profiled Midwest, detailing our humble origins as a provider of coal conveyor belt anti-icing products to our present-day status as one of the 5,000 fastest-growing privately-held companies in the country for seven of the last 13 years. The profile also noted our recognition as a NorthCoast 99 company in 2018 as one of the top places to work in Northeast Ohio and our revenues of $32 million for the fiscal year ending in March.

The Early Days of Midwest

As Innis Maggiore and The Canton Repository noted in their business spotlight of Midwest, CEO Bob Vitale launched the company during the economic uncertainty of the 1970s. Positioning Midwest as a coal conveyor belt anti-icing provider, Midwest succeeded despite high interest rates and soaring inflation. In fact, the energy crisis at the time allowed Vitale to take advantage of a unique opportunity: the rise of coal as the “fuel of the future.”

With the oil embargo in full force, Midwest was able to provide critical support to coal mines, power plants, and steel mills that had invested in coal. Midwest’s anti-icing product for coal conveyor belts delivered reliable solutions for businesses that needed to serve the surging market for coal-powered energy.

A Proven Track Record of Excellence

Since then, Midwest has dramatically diversified its portfolio of products. From soil stabilization solutions to anti-icers designed specifically for rail infrastructure, our suite of products offers organizations such as the Department of Defense and U.S. Steel with the means to protect valuable infrastructure in a wide range of extreme conditions. And, as Innis Maggiore and The Canton Repository note in their spotlight, Midwest’s products are specifically engineered with sustainability in mind, helping businesses stay compliant with environmental regulations and related goals.

With this range of advanced products, Midwest has been able to work with partners around the world, including Kazakhstan, Bahrain, Peru, Chile, Italy, and Spain. Through our new Adventure 2025 program, which aims to double revenues by 2025, Midwest will pursue an even more ambitious international footprint as it helps organizations invest in the functionality and longevity of their infrastructure.

Industry-Leading Solutions

By working with Midwest, companies can take advantage of some of the most innovative and environmentally responsible products in the industry. As mentioned in Innis Maggiore and The Canton Repository’s profile, Midwest’s OSHA recordable rate clocks in at 0.7 — substantially lower than the industry average of 2.8. These figures demonstrate just how much businesses have to gain by investing in critical infrastructure with Midwest’s suite of products.

Whether you’re looking for a dust control solution capable of cutting down on harmful airborne dust or you’re interested in soil stabilization technology that can help you get the most out of your unpaved roads, Midwest is strategically positioned to help. While we’re more than happy to provide businesses with our cutting-edge products, we also offer comprehensive managed services, allowing businesses to focus on their core operations while our team of experts handles every stage of projects from site analysis and application to ongoing maintenance.

Jim is Midwest’s Business Unit Manager for Global Mining. He is experienced in operations management, asset management, and business improvement.