A Brief History of Brown-Strauss
Harry Strauss and two brothers, Morton and Isador Brown founded Brown-Strauss in Kansas City in 1905. Its initial operation was collecting and processing various types of scrap metal, but over the succeeding fifty years it developed a substantial used steel business. Success in the used steel business led to opportunities in the new steel business, and by the mid-1950s it changed primary focus to the distribution of new steel.
The niche Brown-Strauss developed in the new steel business was in purchasing large lots of both primary and secondary steel from mills, which had excess inventories on hand. These inventories were purchased at discounted prices, and in turn were offered at attractive prices to Brown-Strauss' customers.
This concept proved to be very successful, requiring the construction of a large new warehouse in 1960. Here a full product line of steel and pipe was maintained to service local manufacturers of farm implements, conveyors, and other products, as well as to supply other steel distributors throughout the Midwest. As the business continued to grow, supplementary inventories were maintained in other locations.
Brown-Strauss embarked on a westward expansion in the mid-1970s, opening a branch office in Denver, followed shortly thereafter by operations in Phoenix and Salt Lake City. This ultimately proved to be the company's salvation, as the depressed economy in the Midwest in the early 1980s forced the closure of the Kansas City operation. The Denver branch became the company's headquarters, and to take advantage of the explosive growth in construction in the Mountain states, the product line focus was narrowed sharply so as to emphasize wide flange beams. Brown-Strauss, name became synonymous with wide flange beam distribution.
After Brown-Strauss became part of Blue Tee Corp. in 1986, a strategy of significant internal development and growth was adopted. Led by an expansion to the West Coast, sales about doubled in only three years. The Los Angeles area was the initial focus of this expansion, and the success in this area quickly resulted in it becoming the largest stocking location for the company. Warehouses in the Portland and San Francisco areas were opened as business was developed in these regions over the next several years. Concurrent with this geographic expansion was an emphasis on structural tubing as an additional major complementary product line for the company.
Brown-Strauss today is one of the largest distributor of wide flange beams and structural tubing in the Western United States, serving customers from six locations and maintaining an inventory between 80,000 to 90,000 tons of steel.