MaiCo Celebrates
Reaching their 30th anniversary on August 29th , MaiCo plans to hold a company-wide celebration with family and friends. The celebration includes a luncheon, special music, and gifts for the staff, including a collectible 30-year souvenir pin. Each employee will also receive a second pin for their efforts in reaching a new record of seven years of “work without a lost-time incident.”
The celebration will include performances by Cynthia Rausch, a powerhouse country, red dirt, and gospel singer-songwriter from Sharon, Kansas, now living in Texas. Cynthia has opened for Nashville acts such as Logan Mize, Jerrod Neiman, and, most recently, the well-known 1990s band Ricochet. She recently won the “2025 T3R ‘Texas” New Female Artist of the Year
Award.”
Also performing will be Darin Sheffer, a highly talented MaiCo employee and singer-
songwriter.
MaiCo’s Safety Focus
MaiCo’s behavior-based safety program lays the foundation for making safety a core value within each employee. The program incorporates several steps to ensure success, including self-assessments, commitments, and accountabilities.
As Dave Cox says, “We don’t work in a pillow factory”, so workplace safety is an essential part of our company. At MaiCo, maintaining safety and health goes beyond providing personal protective equipment (PPE) or employees using company equipment and machinery properly.
It’s about creating a work environment free from recognized hazards that can cause or are likely to cause injuries and/or illnesses. Having robust safety programs and policies that are consistent and enforced, conducting regular and routine risk assessments and inspections, providing the correct PPE, tools, and machinery, providing training and education to employees, encouraging employees to report unsafe conditions, near-misses, and injuries, as well as recognizing safety performance and safe behaviors, are all ways to create a secure environment. Workplace. By doing this, employees can work in a safer environment, which positively influences production
and efficiency.
“Safety training is an integral part of the process that provides our employees with the knowledge and skills to perform their job safely and allows employees to develop an awareness and understanding of workplace hazards,” said Dave Cox, Plant Manager at MaiCo. Cox said, “Our good health and safety training program can help us reduce costs, making us more competitive in various markets. Losing an employee to a work-related injury or illness can harm productivity, morale, and a company’s bottom line. Not only are there workers’ compensation costs, but also a loss in production due to disruptions and the potential loss of a highly skilled employee, which is becoming harder and harder to replace. Safety training is also important because it can bring management and employees together, working toward a common goal of creating a safe and healthy work environment that guarantees the success of everyone involved.”
In addition to keeping their employees safe on the job site, MaiCo promotes a safety culture that goes beyond the goal of an injury-free workplace. MaiCo nurtures an environment of concern for the employees’ health, safety, and welfare, which extends beyond the office walls and project sites and into their homes, cars, and places where they spend time with their family and friends.
Cox added, “Too often employers measure the safety program’s success by how large their safety manual is or by safety signage throughout the plant or on a job site. Safety is more than just for marketing purposes. At MaiCo, the primary focus is to protect the employees. At MaiCo we have a moral obligation to make sure employees return home safe and healthy at the end of each workday. By building meaningful relationships and trust from all levels of the organization, we can encourage safe work practices and help build a strong safety culture.”
Paul Mai, MaiCo Industries’ Founder
MaiCo manufactures steel poles, bridge tub girders, structural steel buildings, skid attachments, and other specialty fabrication. Located on Highway 14, just north of Ellsworth, MaiCo was founded in 1995 by Paul Mai. Mai believed, “If you can dream it, you can do it”. Mai immigrated to the United States in the late 50’s and during his life he founded several very successful companies in the steel industry. Mai passed in 2017, but his impact is still felt in the day-to-day operation of the company. Mai’s image and his saying will be honored on the shirts worn by each employee during the celebration.
The original fabrication facility consisted of approximately 50,000 square feet and specialized in custom-fabricated 3-plate beam frames. In 2001, MaiCo built a 50,000-square-foot expansion onto the original facility to fabricate multi-sided poles. In 2014, an additional 15,000 square feet was added to the pole division, making the facility 115,000 square feet.
Contact Us At:
MaiCo Industries Inc.
PO Box 24 / 936 Highway 14
Ellsworth, KS 67439
Phone 785.474.5390
Main Fax 785.472.3729
Alternate Fax 785.472.2500
Or on the web at: www.MaiCoind.com
