Kice Industries history

Jim, ten years younger than Jack, spent these years in high school and fabricating flour mill machinery for Forster Manufacturing Co. of Wichita – a major supplier to the Milling Industry before 1950.

A half block of suitable land was located about a mile south of the original building, where Kice Metal Products Co. erected a modest 5000 sq. ft. metal building in 1959.

In 1960, Allis-Chalmers Milling Division was awarded a contract to build two pneumatic mills in Lagos, Nigeria (6000 and 2500 cwt daily capacities). Kice supplied the pneumatics and all the other air systems, a total of eight railcar loads of Kice equipment.

Another new section in 1962 nearly doubled the shop area, and more than doubled the office space, bringing the total space to about 26,000 sq. ft., including an experimental shop.

Beginning in May 1968, they began operating as a family-held corporation.

Kice and OCRIM agreed informally in 1970 that for a five-year period (more or less) OCRIM would establish distribution in North America, and that Kice would cooperate by introducing OCRIM to Kice customers, etc.

For example, as demand grew for pipe and fittings for dust control systems, the prefab Dust Duct concept was born about 1971.

Jack was elected Board Chairman when Bill died in 1972 and held both titles until he retired on his 70th birthday, Jan.

Twenty acres of land in the Blackwell (OK) Industrial Park was purchased and the all-new foundry was built during the winter of 1976, including space for additional Machine Shop and fabrication facilities.

The Blackwell facility was expanded a great deal in 1982, approximately doubling the capacity.

In 1987, the company name was changed from Kice Metal Products Co., Inc. to Kice Industries, Inc.

The other major development during the 1990’s was Kice’s commitment to grow into other industries.

Having stretched the manufacturing capacity of its 125,000 square-foot south Wichita plant to the maximum, Kice built a new $3-million facility completed in October of 1996, that houses the company’s corporate offices and 50,000 square feet of additional manufacturing space.

In 2003 a deal was struck with the city and the construction of a new, state-of-the-art manufacturing facility was begun at the company’s current office location.