History
In 1955, a steel salesman named John H. McConnell saw an opportunity for custom-processed steel. He purchased his first load of steel by borrowing $600 against his 1952 Oldsmobile and founded Worthington Industries. First-year earnings were $11,000 generated from sales of $342,000.
From there, Worthington Industries expanded and added processing facilities throughout the late 1950s and 1960s. Profit sharing was instituted in 1966 and, at the same time, all production workers were put on a salary rather than hourly schedule. In 1968, the company made its first public stock offering of 150,000 shares at $7.50 per share.
In 1971, Worthington Industries purchased a small-cylinders business, the foundation of what is today Worthington Cylinders, one of the company's core businesses. Just a few years later, in 1976, Worthington Industries celebrated $100 million in sales.
The company continued to expand and grow throughout the 1980s. The following decade, in 1996, after working with the company for more than 20 years, John P. McConnell succeeded his father as Chairman and CEO.
A few years later, on April 19, 2000, Worthington Industries moved to the New York Stock Exchange. In 2002, after 34 years with the company, founder and chairman emeritus John H. McConnell stepped down as a member of the board of directors. And in 2005, Worthington Industries celebrated 50 years of business.
Worthington Industries has continued to grow in the new millennium. In 2006, the company entered the stainless steel market when it acquired Precision Specialty Metals of Los Angeles, California. A year later, Worthington Steel expanded internationally, forming a steel-processing joint venture in Mexico with Serviacero Planos. Worthington Serviacero has three facilities in northern and central Mexico.
The following year, Worthington Industries lost its founder. On April 25, 2008, John H. McConnell, business leader and philanthropist, died. At the time of his death, the business he started back in 1955 with his first load of steel had become a $3 billion company, employing 8,000 people in 69 facilities in 11 countries.
Today the company continues to grow. In 2011, Worthington acquired Angus-Palm, adding a new business segment – Engineered Cabs. Angus-Palm designs and manufactures custom-engineered open and enclosed cabs and operator stations for a wide range of heavy mobile equipment. Most recently, in 2012, Worthington acquired the Westerman Companies, a manufacturer of processing equipment and storage tanks for the gas and oil production industry, expanding its presence in the global energy and alternative fuels markets.
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