The origin story of SPS Companies Inc. reads like a plot straight out of the Golden Age of Hollywood: a twist of fate during the Great Depression brings a hard-working man to a small town in Kansas to plant his roots and build his legacy.
Ninety years later, that humble family business has grown into a multi-national, multi-billion-dollar company. What continues to tie the corporation to Manhattan, Kansas, is the region’s strong local business climate and its leaders’ ongoing dedication to making their community a better place to live.
The company’s story began in 1933 with Sam Goldstein, a 47-year-old husband and father of five, who was forced to find a way to support his family after his business failed in Lincoln, Nebraska. With only one asset to his name — a life insurance policy with a cash value of $800 — Sam decided to return to a trade he’d worked in as a youth: buying and selling animal hides and furs, as well as other “junk” he found along the way.
Sam cashed in his life insurance policy, purchased a 1927 Nash, said goodbye to his family and headed south with Hutchinson, Kansas, as his intended destination, in hopes of purchasing wool and hides to sell in Kansas City. This seemed like a valid plan — until the Nash broke down and stranded Sam just north of Manhattan.
A local rancher towed Sam’s car into town for repairs and sold him his first two bags of wool. While Sam was in Manhattan, the rancher and a very astute Buick dealer convinced him that Manhattan was the perfect place to set up a business. They helped him find a cinderblock building at the corner of Second and Osage streets. He signed a lease for $5 a month and opened the Kansas Hide and Wool Company.
“They did some good Chamber of Commerce work in convincing him to set up shop here,” said Dennis Mullin, chairman of today’s SPS Companies, of the men who persuaded Sam to stay in Manhattan. “Once he had that warehouse, everything led him to stay and establish his business here.”
That summer, Sam’s 16-year-old son, Jack, came to help with the fledgling business. At the end of the summer, Sam decided his son’s help was critical to the business’s success, so he enrolled Jack at Manhattan High School to complete his senior year. After graduation, Jack continued working alongside his father, especially after they moved the rest of the Goldstein family to Manhattan in 1935.
“It was all pure happenstance,” said Matt Crocker, CEO of SPS Companies. “Jack was sent down here to help his dad after his junior year of high school and was forced to leave behind the successful life he’d created for himself as a student-athlete in Lincoln. But then, as luck would have it, he ended up staying here his entire life, becoming a leader of this community.”
After spending time in the Army Air Forces during World War II, Jack took on a prominent leadership role in the family business. Along with buying and selling hides, wools and furs, the company added scrap metal to its offerings and began transporting small amounts of new steel to welding shops and manufacturers across Kansas.
After his father’s untimely death from a trucking accident in 1954, Jack focused on the scrap metal and new steel markets, moving away from hides and furs. In 1959, he officially changed the corporation’s name to Steel and Pipe Supply Company. He prioritized helping clients solve problems and building long-term client relationships. The company grew steadily, and he brought on other leaders — namely Paul Van Nostran and Mullin, who both later became presidents of the company — to help the business expand.
Under the guidance of these executives, the company took off. Van Nostran used his experience in the steel industry to build relationships with steel mills. Under his influence, the company expanded to become a full-line prime carbon dealer. Mullin continued that growth and diversification through greenfield expansions and acquisitions during his years as CEO and chairman.
In this rags-to-riches triumph, the company grew to become one of the largest privately owned steel service centers in the Midwest.
“Jack grew up in the Depression and had his life uprooted due to financial hardships he couldn’t control, and that made him — like so many others who lived in that era — nervous and conservative about money,” Crocker said. “Dennis showed Jack how to borrow money to buy more steel, and that led to much quicker growth. When Dennis started in 1972, the company had annual sales of $8 million. Last year, we surpassed $1.8 billion. It’s really quite amazing.”
But the story doesn’t end there. Throughout his later years, Jack became known for helping others start and grow their businesses. He built a significant portfolio of real estate holdings that he used to help entrepreneurs get their start. (Coincidentally, Crocker’s father managed Jack’s real estate business at one time.)
Jack was involved in planning a downtown redevelopment in the 1980s that shaped the community’s growth. He chose to build Colony Square on Poyntz Avenue as part of a matching grant needed to fund the construction of the Manhattan Town Center. That action ultimately kept the city’s primary shopping district in downtown Manhattan during an era known for urban sprawl.
Today, Colony Square is home to SPS headquarters. Crocker said Jack predicted that after he died Mullin would move the company to a big city in another part of the country. But the company’s leadership knew that SPS had become an integral part of the Manhattan region.
“Our company’s culture is the biggest reason why we’re still headquartered here,” Crocker said. “We wouldn’t retain 80% of the people who work for us if we moved elsewhere. Our people love this area and are a huge part of the communities they live in, whether that’s Manhattan or one of the other smaller communities in the region. We recognize the role that dedication plays in our employees’ happiness.”
Nurtured from its humble beginnings to become a diverse family of companies offering a wide range of steel products, value-added processing and steel-related services throughout the Midwest and Mexico, SPS operates with a culture that expects its leaders to be active in their communities. SPS is a significant investor in the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation and the YES! Fund, and donates regularly to numerous local nonprofit agencies, churches and schools.
In addition to financial contributions, SPS continues to play an important volunteer leadership role in advancing Manhattan. Crocker said the company has always encouraged leaders to serve in ways that both benefit the company and the region.
“From a business perspective, it’s a great opportunity for people to get experience working with others to run something. Volunteer board members make decisions that impact people or organizations, and there are only so many opportunities for them to do this internally,” Crocker said. “Through community service, our team gets opportunities to build relationships, find mentors and mentor others in the community they might not have otherwise known. This is an important legacy for SPS that Jack started before my time and continues today.”
Mullin, then Crocker, followed in Jack Goldstein’s footsteps in their efforts to grow the company and community. All three served as chair of the board for the Manhattan Area Chamber of Commerce (Jack in 1980, Mullin in 1997 and Crocker in 2018). Today, SPS remains a lead investor in the community’s economic development campaign, Advantage Manhattan. Mullin has served on the Kansas Board of Regents and other prestigious boards and committees across the state. In addition to numerous Chamber and nonprofit leadership roles, Crocker was personally involved with the formation of the Greater Manhattan Economic Partnership in 2018.
Through these and other volunteer efforts, the current SPS leadership is still furthering the Goldstein family’s tradition of making the Manhattan region a great place to live, work and do business. Crocker hopes SPS continues to play a significant leadership role in helping Manhattan write the next chapter of its story.
“Historically, if you ask people about Manhattan, Kansas State University and Fort Riley come to mind,” Crocker said. “We want to see Manhattan become more balanced, so we can get to the day when people think first about our thriving business community. That’s why it’s so important we recruit new talent and help entrepreneurs develop new businesses here. We have the seeds in place to do this, but it will take continued effort and focus to make them grow. We’re proud to be a part of Manhattan’s story and will continue to be an active partner in its growth for many years to come.”
To learn more about SPS Companies Inc. and its family of steel-related businesses, please visit spsci.com.
To learn more about establishing your business in the Greater Manhattan region, please reach out to Daryn Soldan at daryn@manhattan.org.
