Austin Powder Company is the oldest manufacturing enterprise in the State of Ohio and one of the oldest manufacturers of explosives in the world. The company began in 1833 in Akron, Ohio, with the five Austin brothers of Vermont producing black powder used in blasting rock and the sporting arms of the day. The company acquired the Cleveland Powder Co. in 1867 at the 5 Mile Lock of the Ohio and Erie Canal. The facility was later lost when an explosion occurred in 1907.
Fortunately, before that, in 1891, Austin Powder moved the production 13 miles into the country, carved out a parcel of Solon Township southeast of downtown Cleveland, and built the company town of Glenwillow.
By 1892, Glenwillow was a rural community with production facilities, employee homes, a town hall, a school, and a general store.
In 1930, the company recognized the need to expand its product offering and decided to build a dynamite plant in McArthur, Ohio. This remote facility became known as Red Diamond, in recognition of the company’s logo, and has become the company’s main production site in the United States. In 1972, all of the remaining activities at Glenwillow were moved to Red Diamond, and production ceased.
In the early 20th century, company headquarters were located in the Rockefeller Building in downtown Cleveland. During the 1960s, Austin moved its headquarters to the eastern suburbs, closer to Glenwillow, where it still resides.
With the new ownership of W. Jack Davis, Austin began its journey of international expansion and acquisition of world-class technology. The first acquisitions were in Latin America, starting in Chile, Ecuador, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico. Towards the end of the 1990s and early 2000s, Austin expanded in Europe by purchasing Zvobrovka Vsetin in the Czech Republic and Dynamit Nobel Wien (DNW) in Austria. During the mid-2010s, Austin expanded its production footprint with two new Ammonium Nitrate plants and added Tenaga Kimia in Malaysia. Austin has recently expanded into southern Africa with operations in Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Today, Austin operates in over 25 countries and has more than 4,700 workers worldwide.
Austin Powder is committed to spreading its risks and expanding worldwide into all markets and territories. The company’s growth in recent years is due to its wise approach of adopting best practices from each acquired company and then spreading that knowledge throughout the company.
The Power of Family philosophy, where we look after and take care of each other, is Austin Powder’s greatest competitive advantage. Austin was a family name, and that family culture has continued for nearly two centuries.
Austin Powder continues to innovate through the work of its research and development teams across the globe and constantly seeks improvements that take quality and safety considerations to the next level. Most importantly, its success comes from listening to the needs of its loyal customer base and answering with solid, progressive solutions.
Heading into the next 190 years, the company is equipped to continue its successful growth into geographical territories worldwide while providing quality products and dependable services synonymous with the Austin brand.
We are a traditional manufacturer of initiation systems for industrial blasting operations and an important technological and research base for production and further development of initiation systems.
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