Buckeye Industrial Supply Marks 75 Years in Business

Buckeye Industrial Supply Company (BIS), a Columbus-based industrial products distributor with a branch location in Cincinnati, is celebrating 75 years in business.

To make sure everyone in the company has the knowledge, skills and attitude to serve its customers, BIS provides in-house and outside training, which is said to have resulted in a culture of collaboration.

By treating everyone as if he or she were family, the company says it has won a high degree of trust with its customers. That level of confidence has resulted in more sales over the long term with those customers, and with customers who do business with BIS based on the recommendations of loyal customers they know, according to BIS. In some instances, BIS has reportedly worked with customers for 25 or 30 years, or more. BIS says it provides measurable and demonstrable benefits to every customer by developing honest, personalized, cost-efficient solutions instead of taking a cookie-cutter approach that is common throughout the industry.

BIS’ belief that suppliers deserve to make a fair profit off the products BIS distributes for them has enabled the company to form close ties with manufacturers. According to the company, those relationships often enable BIS to obtain favorable pricing that they pass along to customers.

The company began as a scrap materials dealer and, after about five years of operation, evolved into an industrial products distributor serving customers throughout the Midwest.

Over the years, BIS has acquired other industrial distributors, including Ray Industrial Products Inc. in Van Wert, Ohio, last year.

“I am proud of reaching this milestone and look forward to recognizing the many people who have contributed to our good fortune,” says Rick Meizlish, president of BIS, which carries nearly 200 brands in more than a dozen product categories. “Being a third-generation family business for three-quarters of a century is possible because we have continually invested in team members, treated our customers like family and created strong relationships with our suppliers.”