Family-owned Kimray is expanding

By Debbie Blossom

Published: August 28, 2008

After several years of aggressive growth, a family owned, fourth-generation-operated manufacturer supplying products for the oil and gas industries is expanding operations to meet a global demand.

Oklahoma City-based Kimray Inc. announced Wednesday the company has purchased an additional 90,000 square feet of manufacturing space within its nine-building, 180,000-square-foot campus that stretches between E 41 Street to 44 Street and from Santa Fe to Broadway.

From 2002 to 2007, Kimray's revenues have jumped just more than 150 percent from $53 million to $136 million, because of today's thriving energy sector, said David Hill, vice president of operations and grandson of Kimray founder Garman Kimmell Jr.

The new facility "is a $4 million corporate expansion for us,” Hill said, and will primarily be used for assembly, inventory and shipping. "But we're not ruling out machining in there.”

Renovations on the space, the former Dulaney Inc. building, will begin at the end of November when current lessees have left, he said. Remodeling will be done in stages, and some operations will begin by Jan. 1.

Kimray already employs 500 people locally, with about 50 others working at nine distributor locations in the country. The company sells its products solely through its distributors.

Although Hill said more employees will be needed that number has not been determined. But the company has been expanding its staff for several years, "And we've added more than 100 in the last year,” he said.

Kimray was founded in 1948 and has hung on and flourished even as its competitors have been swallowed up by global conglomerates, Hill said.

Employees man three shifts, with most working 11-hour days, Hill said, to fill orders. Workers produce and ship out 2,000 units a day.

"We've been competitive and successful in manufacturing,” he said.

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