Osborne Industries Inc. in Osborne, Kan., celebrated its 40th anniversary at company headquarters on May 15, 2013. The employee-owned company manufactures and distributes production equipment and products for the swine industry, composite plastic components for a variety of industries and markets a small line of pet products.
Osborne Industries was incorporated in 1973, with only five employees a rented building on the county fairgrounds. Today, the company has nearly 250,000 square feet of manufacturing, warehouse, and office buildings, occupying almost 11 acres in the Osborne Industrial Park and is the largest employer in the city of Osborne.
Early manufacturing for the company was limited to labor-intensive hand lay-up methods for fiberglass-reinforced plastic fabrication. In 1976, Osborne Industries developed a new production technique: resin transfer molding. Forty years later, Osborne continues to use advanced resin transfer molding for fiberglass reinforced plastics. Osborne's resin transfer molding method is also used on many of their proprietary livestock equipment products.
In 1994, Osborne added a department dedicated to reaction injection molding plastic components. The expansion into this type of molding allowed Osborne to become one of only a few molding companies worldwide with Telene polydicyclopentadiene molding capabilities.
With the purchase of various companies throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Osborne expanded to include metal fabrication, machining, tool building and an electronic design and assembly division. These additions assisted in the expansion of Osborne's livestock equipment products.
Osborne manufactures and distributes its own line of livestock equipment and distributes a line of production equipment that includes penning, flooring, farrowing and gestation stalls, among others.
By early 2007, the company became completely employee owned. In June 2010, the company was awarded the Kansas Governor's Exporter of the Year Award. Osborne has exported products to over 40 countries and accounts for approximately 20 percent of total company sales.
In 2012, Osborne introduced a line of swine management products, equipment and services. The line includes farm design, building construction management, a full-line of production equipment, one-of-a-kind training and support, and professional management services to improve success in intensive pig farming.
