Birmingham Fastener opened two branch locations: New York Fastener and Iowa Fastener. These locations will focus on distribution and Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) sales.
New York Fastener, based in Elmira, NY, will be led by GM Jason Rusnak, and Iowa Fastener, based in Ankeny, IA, will be led by GM Joe Miller.
“Surround yourself with good people, give them the tools they need to be successful, and get out of the way,” stated CEO Brad Tinney.
Earlier this year, Birmingham Fastener opened a distribution and manufacturing facility in Houston to serve the oil and natural gas industry and manufacture studs and threaded products. Led by GM James Province, the Houston branch is the company’s second manufacturing facility.
Founded in 1980 by Howard Tinney, Birmingham Fastener has manufacturing operations in Alabama and Texas, and distribution centers in Alabama, Florida, Texas, Nebraska, Connecticut, Wisconsin, New York and Iowa. The company is headquartered at 931 Ave. West, Birmingham, AL 35214. Tel: 205 595-3511 Web: BhamFast.com

Field announced it has reached $100 million in sales in 2019.
“We did it! Field is now a $100MM company. We are so grateful for everyone who was an instrumental part of achieving this goal!,” the company stated on Twitter.
Field has averaged a 19% growth rate since 1990.
Field provides inventory management and complete supply chain solutions for fasteners and other Class “C” items. The company was acquired by Derry Enterprises, Inc. in 1990, and operates facilities in Illinois, Texas, South Carolina, and Mexico.
Field is headquartered at 9883 North Alpine Rd., Machesney Park, IL 61115. Tel: 815 637-9002 Web: FieldFastener.com

Hisco Inc., an employee-owned, specialty distribution company, won a customer success award from Insite Software. The Outstanding Customer Results award for search engine excellence was presented to Hisco’s Gary Niemand, senior VP of IT and procurement.
“When it comes to e-commerce, it’s not as simple as ‘if you build it, they will come,’” said Hisco marketing VP Dave Weitner. “We’ve managed to create a rich content experience for engaged visitors, and that gives us a competitive edge. Our SEO has been transformative both for Hisco and our All-Spec subsidiary.”
Fiscal year-to-date, page-one keywords are up an average of 50% on hisco.com, and 93% on all-spec.com.
Hisco was founded in the 1940s as Houston Industrial Supply Co. and became Hisco in 1971. Hisco is a master distributor of industrial material products – including wire management/fasteners and adhesives – with 35 stocking locations in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Hisco is headquartered at 6650 Concord Park Dr., Houston, TX 77040-4098. Web: Hisco.com

After 25 years leading Laboratory Testing Inc., Michael McVaugh is retiring and turning over the president title to his son, Brandon McVaugh. He will retain the CEO title.
Mike McVaugh began working with his father – company founder Bob McVaugh – in 1982 when Bob co-owned the NDT division of Carson Helicopter. After buying his partner’s share of the business and moving to a larger location in 1984, Bob McVaugh changed the company’s name to Laboratory Testing Inc. LTI expanded into new types of metal testing services beyond the original non-destructive testing services.
After Bob’s death in 1994, Mike became president and CEO. LTI has subsequently tripled to 195 employees and expanded from 30,000 to 170,000 sq. ft. LTI diversified through acquisitions, including Fracture Technology Associates in 2017, which offers fatigue crack growth and fracture toughness testing software and hardware systems, and TAC Technical Instrument Corp. in 2018, a manufacturer of immersion ultrasonic testing systems.
Brandon McVaugh began with LTI while a student. After college he worked with the Vanguard Group – fulfilling a company policy requiring family members to work five years outside the business before joining LTI. Brandon started as a customer service supervisor for LTI in 2010 and subsequently held multiple positions, including managing the mechanical testing department and the machine shop; director of operations; and led the acquisitions. He is one of three third-generation family members now with LTI.
Laboratory Testing is a NADCAP, A2LA and ISO certified materials testing and metrology laboratory headquartered at 2331 Topaz Dr., Hatfield PA 19440. Tel: 800 219-9095 Web: LabTesting.com

North East Fasteners Corp. upgraded its ERP system.
After two years in development, NEF gains multiple tools “in virtually every department, which will significantly enhance the NEF customer experience,” president Eric Webster announced. “NEF’s quoting module, the heart of our ERP system, has been completely reimagined. Just one of the many advancements that were made, will allow us to quote an extensive military package with around hundred items, which can normally require the better part of a day, in a fraction of the time.”
In addition to PDFs, NEF can provide quotes in an Excel spreadsheet.
NEF manufactures fasteners for commercial, military, aerospace, medical and automotive markets. Sizes range from inch 00 to 10 and metric M1.2 to M4.5 up to two inches (50mm) in length. NEF was founded in 1963 by Robert Webster and is located at 8 Tremco Dr., Terryville, CT 06786. Tel: 860 589-3242 Web: nef1.com

Marc Strandquist was named President of the Americas for Optimas Solutions, according to his LinkedIn account.
Strandquist started in the fastener industry in 1986 with Rockford Products. He had been with Würth from 2001 to 2019, where he served as executive VP of the Würth Group and CEO of Würth Industry North America.
He was president of the National Fastener Distributors Association from 2016-17.
Glenview, IL-headquartered Optimas Solutions is a global supplier of industrial fasteners and c-class components, with 1,600 employees in 16 countries. Optimas distributes 130,000 SKUs to 10,000 customers in automotive, heavy truck, high tech, medical, power generation, powertrain, transportation and tunneling industries. Optimas manufactures in Illinois and the UK.
The Optimas brand was launched in 2015, but the company traces its roots to 1890 in North America and Europe.
Optimas is a member of the British Association of Fastener Distributors, European Industrial Fasteners Institute and Confederation of British Metalforming. Web: Optimas.com

Spirol International Corp. announced that two of its manufacturing locations received the 2018 General Motors Supplier Quality Excellence Award for operational excellence and quality control. This is Spirol’s fifth year for its Canadian operation and Spirol Connecticut’s fourth consecutive year.
General Motors announced the awards are “given to specific manufacturing locations and only our top performing supplier manufacturing sites are eligible to receive it. Suppliers who receive this award have met or exceeded a very stringent set of quality performance criteria and have achieved the cross-functional support of the entire GM organization.” Only 10% of GM suppliers received the award for 2018.
Spirol manufactures spring pins, solid pins, compression limiters, inserts for plastics, installation technology and vibratory feeding equipment in Connecticut. The Canadian facility manufactures tubular products including roll formed spacers, compression limiters, dowel  bushings, spring dowels, and ground hollow dowels.
Spirol operates in 12 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Spain, and the U.S. Founded in 1948, Spirol is headquartered at 30 Rock Ave., Danielson, CT. Web: Spirol.com