A history of growth, a heritage of innovation

In 1949, Alvin F. Groll, a design engineer for a world-renowned press builder, decided to start manufacturing coil handling and press feeding equipment with Arthur Burgess, representative of All-Steel Press Company. Alvin and Arthur contacted Chevrolet Division in Flint, Michigan, who provided the men with their initial purchase order for two coil cradles and straighteners.

With no manufacturing facility of their own, they worked with several locations that manufactured the parts and built the equipment. In 1952, they decided to purchase a small building on Canal Street in Napoleon, Ohio. This first building consisted of only 2,173 sq. ft. As the orders continued and increased in number, several additions to the building and equipment purchases were required to handle the growth.

In 1955, Alvin asked his two sons-in-law to join the company. Marion Greenler and William Beck began learning the business. As a result of several more expansions and the purchase of a few surrounding businesses, by 1957 Automatic Feed Company had grown to 32,215 sq. ft. Several years later some light cranes were installed to create a saw room and steel storage area possible.

In 1966, Alvin F. Groll suffered a heart attack. The Board of Directors appointed William Beck as president, in charge of the office and sales, and Marion Greenler as vice president, in charge of manufacturing. With a new philosophy and the assistance of dedicated employees, Automatic Feed Company continued to grow. In 1967, another expansion began for additional office space, stock room, print room, vault, sand blasting area, and increases in the assembly, manufacturing and fabrication department areas.

In 1982, orders were down and the future of Automatic Feed Company seemed uncertain. As a result of buy/sell negotiations with the Greenler family, the Beck family purchased the controlling interest in the company. William Beck retired shortly thereafter. The third generation of the family, Kim Beck and Peter Beck took over the reins of the company. Kim was named president, handling the sales and engineering functions of the business. Peter was named vice president, coordinating the fabricating, machine shop and assembly operations. They met the challenge to save the business and developed a solid business philosophy of extensive reinvestment, an international target market, and good labor relations. They drew on each other's strengths and set out to become the single source supplier of coil handling equipment to Honda of America, in Marysville, Ohio. It was this order that pulled the company out of a grim situation.

Kim and Peter liked Honda's team concept and decided to utilize it at Automatic Feed Company. This concept drew upon the expertise of all team members at various levels throughout the organization. It provided them with an opportunity to make decisions and pro-actively offer their input to management.

In 1986 the assembly floor was extended to accommodate the growing line lengths and the machine shop area was increased in 1993. During the early 1990's, the company focused on developing foreign trade relations, helping the company earn the prestigious Governor's "E" Award in 1994.

The following years were taken up by another objective, maintaining market share. These were the growth years, where we were trying to expand and ward off competition by handling more projects. The last expansion was completed in 1997 when the assembly floor and office areas were greatly enlarged. In its fifty+ year existence, Automatic Feed Company has grown from 2,173 sq. ft. to a total of 168,500 sq. ft. with the front entrance in the same location as it was in 1953.