Staff photos / R. Michael Semple Justin Rydarowicz, planner with Hynes Industries, left, and Rick C. Organ, the company’s president and CEO, stand near dozens of rolled steel coils in June at the company’s manufacturing facility in Austintown. The company continues to grow and innovate as it enters its 100th year in business.

AUSTINTOWN — Hynes Industries, a custom fabrication and roll form metal solutions manufacturer, is doubling-down on investment and growth as the Austintown-based company enters its 100th year in existence.

“It’s rare for an organization to make it to 100 years, and we certainly feel it’s cause for celebration and reflection, because we didn’t get here on our own, we didn’t start this company,” Rick C. Organ, president and CEO, said. “Our job is to build on it, to be good stewards of it and build it for the next generation.”

Rewind one century; Hynes was founded in 1925 as Hynes Steel Products in Youngstown. In 2006, the company expanded into Kokomo, Indiana, and in 2015, Hynes acquired American Roll Form in the Cleveland suburb of Painesville. That same year, the company consolidated all five of its Youngstown-area locations into one on Henricks Road and made the site its corporate headquarters.

Organ, a native of Boardman, joined the company in 2016. He mostly recently worked as a chief executive of a variety of different companies on behalf of private equity firms in the aerospace sector. Hynes, he said, is his first venture in steel roll forming.

ABOUT

Hynes produces parts primarily for four industries: automated material handling, truck trailer, solar and commercial and industrial, the last of which is related to commercial building and construction.

At its three locations, the company employs about 200 people, about two-thirds of which are in Austintown.

Hynes produce parts for several well-known companies, including the racking systems used by Walmart to move goods at the retail giant’s automated warehouses and the framing used to make the large, 53-foot trailers semitrailers haul.

In fact, Hynes this year was given a Platinum Supplier Award from commercial trailer manufacturer Wabash for superior performance in innovation, quality, delivery, cost and service.

It was the second consecutive award from Wabash, and seventh overall.

In the solar industry, the company produces the structural components for solar arrays. It did so for the large array outside Kent State University at Trumbull in Champion, and recently shipped a job to the Dominican Republic for a solar farm there, Organ said.

The company also works with companies like Trane and Siemens on the commercial and industrial side, as well as making the rear step used on the Rivian electric delivery vans by Amazon.

In addition, the company is about to launch production on a component Amazon uses for its robotic system at its distribution facilities.

GROWTH

Where growth lies for Hynes being a value-added company for its customers as a collaborative partner and solutions provider.

“Core to our strategy is to grow with the customers we have, because with those customers, we have already established confidence and trust,” Organ said. “Our goal is to build upon that confidence and trust that we’ve built with them to bring more value to them, add more capabilities, add more parts to bring more capabilities from within our own organization to meet a great portion of their needs. That has proven to be successful.”

Among the investments is a new $8 million advanced capability in-line weld mill at the Austintown facility on Henricks Road.

The investment — the single-largest in the history of Hynes — gives the company the ability to create shapes to be welded in-line to a form, giving the part added strength. The mill also incorporates laser welding and embossing, eliminating the need for the products to be sent to costly secondary operations.

The mill is under construction inside the approximately 330,000-square-foot Austintown plant. The line is being assembled in Toronto, Canada, for factory compliance testing before its disassembled and shipped to Austintown, which is expected for July. The line also includes a new 400 ton press that was built in South Korea.

“When we bring this new mill in, there will be 44 truckloads necessary to transport it,” Organ said.

The mill is expected to begin production in August.

Organ’s first order of business when he joined Hynes in 2016 was to restore the company’s engineering capabilities, which had been hindered with the departure of some employees. Then, the company had two engineers with a combined seven years of experience; today, it boasts more than 20 with more than 400 years experience in a wide array of engineering skills — mechanical, controls, robotic welding and tool and die.

Doing so has allowed the company to advance from a “build to print” business to one that performs more conceptual and design work in collaboration with the customer.

The company’s progression continued when it began complete assembly production, rather than simply components. That meant more investment into manufacturing capability, like, for instance, robotic welding.

“So now we do collaborative design, we do concept, we do prototyping, we do production trials and ultimately production, so … truly, it is a partnership with our customers, and that’s a big difference,” Organ said.

MILESTONE

For its 100th milestone, Hynes is celebrating with a special 100-year logo, employee and customer appreciation events, which include an event at Stambaugh Auditorium that’s expected to draw 450 employees and retirees and their family members, and employee challenge for 100% participation in support of the United Way agencies in the communities Hynes operates.