Kee Safety, Inc. Named to Inc. Magazine's Top 5000 in 2008
Company earns honors for second straight year by focusing on "Safety Solutions."
(August 2008) - When Kee Safety, Inc. was named to Inc. Magazine's Top 5000 list in 2007 the Buffalo, New York company saw the award as validation of its strategic repositioning to provide "safety solutions." Qualifying for the Top 5000 list for the second straight year shows Kee Safety that 2007 was not a fluke, but an emerging trend.
Reporting revenue growth of 61.7% from 2004 to 2007, Kee Safety earned a ranking of #4,336 on the Inc. Magazine Top 5000 list released in its August 20, 2008 issue.
According to Mike Mumau, President of Kee in North America, "Continual innovation, expedited R & D and great communication with our partners are largely responsible for the company's growth."
An example of the company's innovation and partnership approach, Kee states, is winning the "Best Practices in New Product Innovation" award from Plant Services as reported in the magazine's February 2008 issue. Working with the customer and building contractors, Kee Safety custom-designed a non-penetrating rooftop railing system for a standing seam metal roof installed at Scientific Protein Laboratories, Waunakee, Wisconsin.
Kee was founded in 1934, manufacturing Kee Klamp® slip-on, structural pipe fittings used to build safety railings, racks, awnings, retail displays, greenhouses, theatrical sets, playground equipment, tables, material handling equipment, fences, and other tubular pipe-fitted structures. Kee Lite® aluminum fittings, a lighter, architecturally styled line of components was developed to complement the galvanized steel Kee Klamp line, but it was the introduction of KeeGuard® rooftop safety railing systems in late 1999, when the company began changing from being product directed to "safety solutions" oriented.
KeeGuard is a roof edge barrier system that provides OSHA-compliant fall protection without penetrating the roof membrane. Adding to the range of rooftop safety products has enabled Kee to emphasize its "safety solutions" approach, Kee Safety notes.
New rooftop safety equipment includes Kee Hatch(TM) to provide fall protection at roof access points, KeeGuard® Skylight and Skylight Screens, plus Kee Dome(TM) to guard open rooftop areas up to 8-ft. by 8-ft. In addition, KeeGuard® Contractor, featuring pre-assembled railings that insert into base plates was first developed as a temporary and portable railing system for use by roofing contractors. It has since found application as a safety railing solution in plant, on offshore oil rigs, for crowd control, and utility and construction site guardrails. For in-plant safety barriers, Kee also developed Kwik Kit® pre-assembled, pre-packaged safety railing kits.
Kee Safety also recently purchased Dunn & Cowe, of Birmingham, England, to enhance and widen its safety product offerings. This purchase will allow Kee Safety to extend into active fall protection systems such as anchors and eye-bolts for harnesses, demarcation systems, ladder supports, vertical ladders, and other related products.
"We expect that by acquiring Dunn & Cowe, we can help provide more safety solutions for our customers and maintain the kind of growth that will enable us to qualify for the Inc-5000 list a third consecutive year in 2009," Mike Mumau added.
2008 marks the second year that Inc. Magazine went past its traditional Top 500 list, digging deeper "to offer the most comprehensive look ever at the entrepreneurial engine driving the U.S. economy," according to the publication. Companies on the Inc. 5,000 are ranked by percentage revenue growth from 2004 through 2007. To qualify, companies must have been founded and generating revenue by the first week of 2004, and therefore able to show four full calendar years of sales, with a minimum of $200,000 revenue in 2004 and $2 million in 2007. Additionally, they had to be U.S.-based, privately held, and independent (not subsidiaries or divisions of other companies) as of December 31, 2007, the magazine states.
For additional information, contact Kee Safety, Inc., 100 Stradtman Street, Buffalo, NY 14206. Toll-Free: 800-851-5181. Phone: 716-896-4949. Fax: 716-896-5696.
Email: info@keesafety.com. URL: www.KeeSafety.com.
For additional information, contact:
Mike Mumau, President, Kee Industrial Products, Inc.
Phone: 896-5181 ext. 129 Fax: 896-4949 Email: mmumau@keeklamp.com
Agency contact for electronic files:
Kenneth A. Boos, Account Executive, Harold Warner Advertising, Inc.
Phone: 852-4410 Fax: 852-4725 Email: extra@haroldwarner.com
