Keith Mfg. Co., Madras, Ore., has been named Business of the Year by the Madras-Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce.
The company and its founder, Keith Foster, who started the company more than 50 years ago, have been recognized with several honors in the past two years. Foster was one of three nominees for the 2001 Oregon Entrepreneur of the Year award in the manufacturing category. Also in 2001, Foster was inducted into the Environmental Industry Associations’ Hall of Fame.
Over the past 50 years, always with a goal of “building a better mousetrap,” Foster has used his innovative spirit to create material handling equipment for customers throughout the world.
Beginning with a self-unloading agricultural trailer in the 1950s, Foster moved on to introduce the patented Keith Walking Floor® unloader in the early 1970s. Today, Walking Floor-equipped semi-trailers and systems are used to convey material in the waste, recycling, wood products, agriculture and packaged ice industries.
Foster holds over 250 patents and his company has supplied more than 22,000 Walking Floor systems to customers around the globe.
Currently, the company employs approximately 150 workers at its manufacturing facility in Oregon, and has offices in Canada, Mexico, The Netherlands, Germany and the U.K.