When it comes to the family business, Joel Fishkind shares an uncomplicated approach that has sustained the company for many years.

Before selling Kenco Industrial Equipment Inc and retiring from the sheet metal industry, Thomas C. Kuschel, who passed away last year at age 85, taught his employees the value of a firm handshake and honest eye contact. 

From small-town shop to big time sheet metal fabrication company, Kevin Gill Sr. has forged McCusker-Gill Inc into the largest sheet metal contracting operation in the greater Boston area by focusing on the people he knows best: family.

For 50 years, the Minneapolis-based Sheet Metal Connectors, Inc. has endeavored to be a trusted partner to HVAC contractors around the country by making products that stand the test of time and integrity. As the company prepares to reach its next major milestone, SMC president and CEO Jim Myers is ready to take that contractor-manufacturer partnership to the next level.

Over 40 years, Gentlemen Sheet Metal Ltd. in Brooklyn, New York, has built a reputation as a small but mighty sheet metal shop that values great work first. The shop’s focus on renovations has mostly kept it from having to swim in the big, new construction pool and protected it from labor shortages and rising material costs. But the tide is already turning.