AMICO

Alabama Metal Industries Corporation (AMICO) is a fabricator of metal lath, grating, grills and fencing located at 3245 Fayette Avenue in Southwest Birmingham.

The company was founded in 1939 as Alabama Metal Lath Company by a group of executives that included Frank Horton, Hugh Kaul, Bill McWane, Crawford Johnson Jr and John Coxe. They had met and discussed the idea during poker games at the Country Club of Birmingham. They concluded that even if the venture was unsuccessful, the business losses would be advantageous to their personal tax liabilities. Despite their cynicism, they business was successful and posted profits during its first year of operation.

During World War II it switched production to .30 caliber machine gun belts, producing over 750,000 links per day. After the war the company opened a new 42,000 square-foot plant. In 1960 it expanded production to include more grating products, changing its name a year later to Alabama Metal Industries Corporation. A 1965 expansion added 125,000 square feet to the plant.

In 1969 the company opened a second production and distribution facility in Los Angeles, California. It added bar grating to its product line in 1976 and began taking international orders in 1979. 1982 saw the addition of a new manufacturing facility in Toronto, Ontario, followed quickly by a distribution center in Montreal, Quebec.

AMICO expanded its Birmingham headquarters in 1990, and began producing vinyl accessory products for its metal lath line in a new 13,000 square-foot plant in 1991. Over the next decade it began acquiring other companies, including ISG (a safety grating manufacturer), Seasafe (a fabricator of fiberglass structures), International Grating, Diamond Perforated and Klemp Grating.

AMICO was purchased by Buffalo, New York's Gibraltar Industries in 2005. The company now has 17 manufacturing plants and five distribution facilities across the country. It employs 1,000 people, of whom 230 work in Birmingham.

References

• Williams, Roy L. (December 21, 2007) "Birmingham, Alabama manufacturer supplies metal for Dallas Cowboys MetroPlex stadium." Birmingham News.

External links

• AMICO website