The company was founded in 1986, when Randall J. McNeil, the company’s current president and CEO, launched an industrial seal products business called Seal Supply, Inc. In the company’s early days, Mr. McNeil operated from the basement of a condominium and, after the first year, moved into an industrial space in Willoughby, Ohio.
McNeil Industries currently employs 30 people for a 2-shift operation at its 32,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing facility in Painesville, Ohio.
To meet customer requests for seal-related components, Mr. McNeil added manufacturing capabilities in 1991, working with a neighboring machine shop before hiring a machinist and buying the company’s first CNC lathe. By 1998, the company’s manufacturing operations outpaced the seal business as its manufactured components business grew. Today, the company’s growing specialty machining business continues to serve strategic customers throughout Northern Ohio with high-precision plastic and metal components.
In 2001, as the company sought additional machining capacity, Seal Supply acquired the assets of ERMCO, Inc. and reorganized to become McNeil Industries. Along with equipment and additional skilled employees, McNeil acquired its first manufactured product line: the MAXAM ® Bearing. Today, this bearing is distributed in the US and Canada by Applied Industrial Technologies, Canadian Bearings, and Motion Industries, with manufacturing, technical, and field support provided by the company.
In 2005, McNeil Industries completed its acquisition of Precision Guide Systems, Inc. Today, the McNeil Guide Systems product line continues to grow with guide pins, bushings, ball-bearing retainers, and spare parts that serve the needs of precision tool and die makers and high-speed, precision stamping operations worldwide. When growth outstripped the company’s 16,000 sq ft Willoughby, Ohio facility, McNeil Industries moved to its Painesville facility in July.