SHELBY — Angela Phillips has long known the metals industry is particularly male-dominated.
Phillips, the CEO of Phillips Tube Group, Inc., said she contemplated entering the metals and steel industry for that exact reason.
“It’s a path that not many women take,” she said. “It’s usually not the thing at 6-years-old that you say, ‘Hey. I think I want to go make steel parts or be part of the steel industry …”
On Thursday, Phillips Tube Group hosted an Association of Women in the Metal Industries Central Region joint event at its Shelby facility. AWMI’s Central Region is made up of chapters from Columbus, Cleveland, Detroit and Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.
The event included a mill demonstration, networking and refreshments. Several local and out-of-state workers from the metals and steel industries were in attendance, as well as city and state officials.
Phillips said she appreciates AWMI’s efforts to elevate women within the workforce.
“It’s really neat to have people together that have similar stories, to be able to work off of each other and learn things from each other,” she said.
Phillips Tube Group named a 2024 Company of the Year
Carol Schmidt had a surprise announcement Thursday afternoon.
Schmidt, president of AWMI’s Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky chapter, announced Phillips Tube Group was selected as the chapter’s 2024 Company of the Year.
Founded in 1981, AWMI began its mission centered around four cornerstones; educate, network, mentor and grow. The association has grown to 19 chapters throughout North America and 82 corporate company members, including Phillips Tube Group.
Between the United States and Canada, AWMI has more than 2,000 individual members.
“Phillips Tube (Group) joined the AWMI as a corporate sponsor the first of the year and they hit the floor running,” Schmidt said. “They reached out to us with their team and said they’d like to have a plant tour.”
In February, the Middletown location of Phillips Tube Group hosted a similar event — which inspired Thursday’s tour at the Shelby facility.
Schmidt said the goal of the events is to educate, but each of AWMI’s four cornerstones are often implemented during gatherings.
“You think you’re coming here to just be educated, then you end up mentoring somebody with something you say or you’re learning yourself from something somebody else says,” she said.
“Whether it’s personally or professionally, we’re a growth organization. We encourage each other. We try to help each other personally and professionally develop and get over whatever we’re going through,” Schmidt said.
Attendees tour PTG Shelby Mill 1
The Shelby location is the flagship facility of Phillips Tube Group.
Tube mills, cutting, end finishing, packaging and light fabrication are all included within the 240,000-square-foot facility.
Thursday’s tour and demonstration walked attendees through Mill 1 of the Shelby facility.
Ben Willman, Phillips Tube Group vice president of operations, said Mill 1 was approved in 2021 for construction.
“We broke ground in October of 2022 and in June of 2023, we were producing tube (in Mill 1),” he said. “Our main focus was to design and build a mill that would produce and run 400 feet (of tube) a minute.”
Willman added enhanced safety features and improving overall operating efficiencies were also top priorities with the new mill.
He said the company is very proud of Mill 1 and its level of production, adding it’s put Phillips Tube Group “at the next level.”
Phillips reflects on past, speaks to future
As Phillips spoke at the podium Thursday, she could see straight across North Gamble Street — where Phillips Tube Group was founded by her late father, Ralph, 57 years ago in a small building and garage.
Early in her life, Phillips and her family lived in a trailer right behind the business before moving down the street a few years later.
“I had a great growing up here on the north side of Shelby, Ohio,” she said. “It’s good to be back here and see the things that we’ve been able to accomplish.”
As she spoke about the company’s goals, Phillips also looked toward the future.
“We’ve got some new things coming down as we look at 2030 and beyond and what this business can do,” the CEO said.
“I grew up knowing that you can do anything you set your mind too and it may take a couple times to figure it out, but it works.”
(Below are more photos from Thursday’s AWMI Central Region joint event in Shelby at Phillips Tube Group, contributed by Catherine Martin of Phillips Tube Group.)
