Precision Marshall is making an impact across the continent
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Frank Tennant works at the plate grinding machine inside Precision Marshall, a Washington-based steel manufacturer and leading producer of ground flat stock and drill rod in North America.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Vince Altieri packages a plate for shipping at Precision Marshall, where he’s worked for 34 years. The Washington-based company trucks product to Chicago weekly for international distribution.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Sparks fly inside Precision Marshall on a recent weekday, where employees work to produce steel for international distribution. The Washington-based Precision Steel celebrates 75 years of business in July.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Inside Precision Marshall in Washington, Mike Ealy prepares a piece of steel for plate milling. The machine Ealy works on smooths plates, creating metallic confetti-like scrap that is recycled into new pieces of steel.
Photos: Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
To commemorate 75 years in business, Precision Marshall earlier this year installed a new sign visible from Interstates 70 and 79. The steel company based in Washington is North America’s leading manufacturer of precision ground flat stock and drill rod steel.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Precision Marshall’s steel bar ranges from 12 inches to 72 inches long, and varies in width and thickness. Here, Jake Koontz places steel bars along a machine for polishing.
Editor’s note: This is one in a weekly series featuring businesses operating in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties that have national and global reach.
Precision Marshall Steel has had its mettle tested from the beginning – literally.
Thomas R. Milhollan launched the business under modest circumstances, in the garage of his small Washington home. “His first office was our dining room table,” Thomas’ son, Jack, related a few years ago.
The founder was in danger of floundering early on, though. He embarked on his venture with lofty aspirations, but underwhelming resources. “My father,” Jack recalled, “said it was a myth that the company was founded on a shoestring … that, in fact, it was on a broken shoestring.”
Thomas and his company, however, would not allow that string to snap. Seventy-five years after its unlikely start along May Avenue, Precision Marshall has established a formidable footprint, one that extends across North America.
The Milhollan brainchild, established July 1, 1948, will celebrate its 75th birthday three days before America turns 247. A sign proclaiming “75 years” has been placed with the white block lettering identifying the longtime company headquarters building. It sits atop 99 Berry Road in South Strabane Township, highly visible to commuters along Interstates 70 and 79.
Precision Marshall manufactures premium quality decarb-free tool steels and specialty alloys there.
“We buy steel from all over the world that is used for tool and die making,” said Tom Sedlak, chief executive officer of the firm. “If it’s manufactured in North America and it comes from a tool or die, there is a high probability that the steel that made that tool or die came from here.”
He said his company is the leading producer of two products in North America: precision ground flat stock and drill rod.
Precision Marshall sells its products only to independent distributors, who make products widely available to local end users throughout the continent, including Canada and Mexico.
Berry Road is still the flagship location, but the company is no longer locally owned. Precision Industries Inc., which operates as Precision Marshall, was purchased in July 2020 by Live Ventures Inc. Live Ventures, a diversified, publicly traded holding company based in Las Vegas, reported that it paid about $31.5 million in cash.
Jack Milhollan retired as president and CEO at about that time. He was succeeded shortly thereafter by Sedlak, the firm’s third leader in three-quarters of a century.
The company is doing well, Sedlak said. “We’ve increased sales and hired some people. We’re focusing growth on existing products and have introduced two new products: deluxe flat bars and stainless drill rod.”
Precision Marshall has expanded in Washington County, adding a small location in Meadow Lands, at the former Rubber Rolls Inc. manufacturing facility.
More significantly, Live Ventures completed a deal in June 2022 to acquire Kinetic Co. Inc., a Wisconsin firm that manufactures industrial knives.
Sedlak said the owner has been looking at acquisitions.
The company collectively has about 200 employees, including 64 in South Strabane, 115 at Kinetic and 11 at a national distribution center in Bolingbrook, Ill.
Sedlak, like Jack Milhollan before him, expresses staunch loyalty to those employees.
“We have a very good workforce, men and women who come to work every day,” he said. “We have a good relationship with the (United Steelworkers) union. The company has been providing high-paying jobs for 75 years, and it’s the kind of work that can support a family with one income. We have good medical benefits.”
Precision Marshall, Sedlak added, is planning a large picnic for employees this summer.
A South Strabane resident, Sedlak grew up in the Greenfield section of Pittsburgh – where his family, coincidentally, forged a destiny. His grandfather and great-grandfather worked at the Jones & Laughlin mill nearby. He has a photo of the plant in his office, taken from his grandfather’s street.
Now he is in steel, with 15 years of experience at Precision Marshall, a company that survived a rocky start to thrive.