Welsco Inc.*

Welsco Inc. of North Little Rock was founded in 1941 to meet the need for welding equipment and gases during World War II.

First established as Welding Supply Co. by Richard G. Harrison with backing by his father, Claude G. Harrison, the company today remains independent and still in the hands of the Harrison family.

Angela Harrison-King, a member of the fourth generation, began working for the company in 1991 and became president and CEO in 1994. She was named Arkansas Business Executive of the Year in 1997, and the company has earned other honors as a woman-owned business. (Her father, Stephen E. Harrison, has a minority stake in the company.)

Today, Welsco sells industrial gases, medical gases and welding supplies in 16 different locations. The company has 110 employees.

In the past two years, Welsco has purchased the assets of Ozark Welding Supply, which added stores at Bentonville and Fayetteville, and it has bought land at Conway and Tulsa, where it expects begin building new stores soon to meet the needs of customers in those areas. The company now does business in five states.

With a picking up of the economy last year, companies began buying more equipment and needing welding services. As a result, Angela Harrison-King said, revenue was up 24 percent.

Harrison-King said her biggest accomplishment has been keeping Welsco independent and growing while her competitors have been merging to form much larger companies.

She credits the success of Welsco to great employees, some of whom have been with the company for 40 years or more; 25 percent have worked there for more than 20 years.

Welsco tries to maintain a family-type atmosphere, Harrison-King said, and it has been a corporate partner with Easter Seals of Arkansas since 2002.