Paxton and Vierling Steel

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Paxton & Vierling Steel (formerly Paxton & Vierling Iron Works) is a leading supplier of unprocessed and processed steel in North America - for complex buildings and bridges, from component parts and tool steel for many industries, to one-time cut-to-length sheets. Owen Industries serves customers throughout the world. For more than a century, Paxton & Vierling Steel, a division of Owen Industries,Inc., has been a part of the structural history of Omaha and Nebraska. Throughout the area, the girders and beams that support numerous buildings and bridges attest to this long relationship. Paxton & Vierling Steel played a pivotal role in erecting many of Omaha’s landmark structures: the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum; the Union Pacific Corporation headquarters; the main branch of the United States Post Office in Omaha; the Zorinsky Federal Building; the Mutual of Omaha complex; the Woodmen Tower; and hundreds of highway and railroad bridges, including Abbott Drive bridge. In 1885, Omaha business pioneer, W.A. “Billy” Paxton, along with A.J. Vierling and his brother Robert Vierling of Chicago, founded Paxton & Vierling Iron Works in Omaha, with 30 employees. The company made industrial ironware of all kinds, including most of the street lamps and manhole covers in Omaha. Many of the city’s historic warehouses still have an iron threshold with the Paxton & Vierling Iron Works insignia. The Owen Family connection with Paxton & Vierling began in 1930, when the company sent Fred E. Owen from their Chicago-based steel company to Omaha to help manage their struggling subsidiary. Fred was initially dividing his time between Chicago and Omaha, but he soon found that he needed to be in Omaha on a full-time basis. By 1943, with World War II raging on, Fred Owen was able to buy out the Vierling family interest in the company. His son Edward F. Owen began his 52-year career with the company as a weekend watchman in 1933, working for one dollar a day and rising through the company to become chairman. Edward was a charismatic mover and shaker of his era. During this period, Paxton & Vierling Steel diversified by processing structural steel for Omaha’s construction boom and fabrication to the railroad industry. The company established new divisions in Iowa, North Dakota and Kansas. In 1979, Edward Owen handed the day-to-day responsibility of running the company to his eldest son Robert E. Owen, who now is Chairman of Owen Industries, Inc.

TOP STEEL PROCESSORS OF TODAY

PVS has become one of the top steel fabricators in the United States, dedicated to meeting stringent production schedule requirements and setting industry standards for precision workmanship. PVS maintains large inventories of materials, uses advanced technology and equipment, streamlines logistics management, and operates its own fleet of trucks. As one of Owen Industries’ divisions, its projects are supported by a network of steel service centers across the Midwest. Owen Industries is now one of the nation’s leading processors of steel for the manufacturing, railroad and construction industries. Its projects range from silos to power plants, from interstate highway light fixtures to bulldozers and tractor parts, from stadiums to railroad bridges. . . the range of products is truly diverse. The company provides a full range of steel products and steel-processing capabilities and service. Service centers fill orders for long-term and just-in-time steel needs and provide extensive processing-plus capabilities. The contract manufacturing division produces steel products completed up to the fully painted stage for just-in-time assembly. The structural fabrication division handles projects of immense size and supplies products and services to satisfied customers worldwide. Project management teams oversee time lines and budget matters. Because of corporate commitment to high quality standards, many of Owen Industries divisions have received ISO 9002 certification.

A WORLDWIDE ARENA WITH OMAHA ROOTS

Owen Industries employs more than 400 people, and annual total sales are more than $120 million. The company believes that its success relies on the development of all it’s employees and their abilities. The corporation has strategic partners throughout the Pacific Rim and Europe. Its arena is everywhere in the world, with its home court in Omaha. Fred E. Owen and Edward F. Owen established a charitable foundation in 1959 that has generously endowed more than $5.5 million to various scholarships and more than 50 community groups in greater Omaha. The Owen family and the Owen Foundation also have made significant contributions to enhance the quality of life in the community, including tennis courts at Mahoney State Park; Camp Owen at Platte River State Park; improvements to the Omaha Community Playhouse; and new facilities for lions, tigers, seals and giraffes at the Henry Doorly Zoo. The Owen family is also strongly committed to enhancing the cultural amenities of Omaha by supporting Opera Omaha, the Omaha Millennium Lights Display, and Boy Scouts and Boys & Girls Clubs of Omaha.

Now at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Owen Industries continues to play a pivotal role in Omaha’s landscape and is now a leading steel processor in North America. The future is diverse and the markets are worldwide. What does the future hold for Owen Industries? Bob Owen believes the range of services and value the corporation can provide to its customers is unlimited. “Our goal is to become our customers’ supplier of choice when they need steel and steel processing.”