The History of Valco

VALCO’s History of Industrial Metal Fabrication

Since 1972, we have been rolling up our sleeves and working hard! VALCO’s history has been growing deeper ever since. We make it a priority not to create a bureaucracy that gets in the way of serving our customers. Rather we are an organization that simply just gets it done.

VALCO’s history started out buying and selling steel sheets and coils, and then grew into more of an all-purpose metal fabrication company. We located ourselves in close proximity to The International Harvester Company in Springfield, Ohio who was our main customer and focus at the time.

We moved into becoming a metal fabrication supplier of special equipment, rework and low run production. One of our strengths then, as it is now, was fast set-up times and quick response time. By 1974, we began to design, manufacture and rework material handling racks for International, Ford, Honeywell and Honda.

In 1979, VALCO moved into a new manufacturing facility located at 6901 Urbana Road, which was adjacent to the Navistar/International plant. Over the years we were able to add new capabilities, including at the time state-of-the-art laser cutting and tube bending equipment to complement our cadre of CNC break presses, punches and shears.

In 1984, VALCO expanded into a second new building on its Urbana Road manufacturing complex and continued adding equipment, such as a new milling center while increasing our welding and painting capabilities.

In 2002, VALCO was purchased by Edward Leventhal who was the owner and remains President. In early February of 2007, VALCO had a devastating fire that completely destroyed one of our buildings, as well as, all of the equipment and inventory that was located in that building. Even though this was one of the lowest points of VALCO’s history, it was also one of our proudest. We are proud to say that in spite of the fire VALCO did not miss a customer delivery, did not have to lay off one associate, and received tremendous support from suppliers, customers, and even competitors. Customers allowed VALCO to place our personnel in their facilities in order to keep everyone employed, and several competitors allowed us to use their equipment on off hours in order to meet our customer’s requirements and demands.

By early April of 2007 VALCO found a larger facility, had purchased and installed new state of the art equipment, and relocated a number of our associates. In early June of 2007, we were completely operational in our new facility located at 625 Burt Street in Springfield, Ohio. With this unexpected and unplanned move we were able to increase our manufacturing/warehouse space from 27,000 square feet to well over 125,000 of square feet. VALCO purchased a new 5,000 watt laser, new CNC machining centers, updated our computers and data collection systems, and developed a much improved working environment for our associates. The new facility came with a refined mission statement and values.

Since that time VALCO has continued to grow into over 125,000 feet of manufacturing and warehouse space, added two additional state of the art lasers, increased our stamping capability and expertise, and most importantly has continued to invest in our most important asset, our people. As part of VALCO’s continuous improvement efforts we strive to expand our manufacturing capabilities, upgrade our equipment and facilities, and provide a wide spectrum of training for all of our associates.

Regardless of our location or our number of years in business, VALCO’s strength continues to be our ability and commitment to keeping our sleeves rolled up, while maintaining a flat organization that remains flexible and responsive to our customers and our associates ever changing needs. We know that by taking care of the customer and keeping our people #1 that we will continue to “Work Together to be The Best.”

An Employee-Owned Company

Eddie Leventhal, owner of VALCO Industries, was proud to announce that effective March 1, 2021 VALCO would became an employee-owned company. Eddie Leventhal transferred 100% of his VALCO ownership to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). This new structure of employee ownership will ensure that VALCO Industries remains independent, preserves the family culture that has been created, guarantees we will remain local, reinforces the company’s commitment to our customers, our suppliers, our community, and most importantly our employees.

“There were a number of options we could have used to transfer the ownership of VALCO Industries, but many of them were simply not right for us,” states Eddie Leventhal president and former owner of VALCO Industries. “We have worked hard over the years to create a family culture that values our employees, customers, and suppliers and the relationships and partnerships we have created. Moving forward and looking to the future I felt the ESOP provided the best solution to preserve and grow what we have created over the years. I strongly believe that by Working Together The Best is Yet To Come.”