Their products are in a lot of things you use, but you might not know it. Cincinnati’s manufacturing industry runs on our need for everyday items and products to function seamlessly, from the handle on your gas pump to the panels holding the lighting above you as you read this issue of Realm.
Not all manufacturers are the same, of course. But even if their company cultures or product lines vary, local manufacturing leaders share the same passion for the community they serve. And that commitment to Cincinnati has never been more apparent than in the local industry’s upward trajectory—even as national trends show the opposite, with 42,000 layoffs in manufacturing across the U.S since April.
Cincinnati is succeeding in the face of national downward trends partially due to GE Aerospace and CVG/Amazon attracting new vendors and suppliers to the region—companies that might make one single part for jet engines but create large factories that employ hundreds. And the heart of some of these small companies derives from their multi-generational structures. They’ve seen ups and downs in the economy over many decades and, in some cases, centuries.
Here are four smaller manufacturers in the region you might not be familiar with, but they’ll teach you a thing or two about resilience.
[Photographs by Devyn Glista]
Airecon Manufacturing
What’s in a name? Quite a bit, it turns out, for this Madisonville-based manufacturing company established in 1979. Founder Joe Gutierrez, whose father was a Castro-era Cuban immigrant, christened the business Aire, which is Spanish for “air.”
Gutierrez was a University of Cincinnati graduate and did what founders do to make it work: Put himself last at first. “In the beginning, Joe along with partners Lenny Depenbrock (and eventually son Dana), Tim Kidd, and David Miller sacrificed earnings to build a business from the ground up,” says Airecon Manufacturing President Josh Jacobs (pictured at top). “And then they turned new customers into loyal customers. The partnerships they created are still strong today.”
As with many local manufacturing businesses, the founders focused in the early years on key differentiators and distinguishers. In Airecon’s case, Jacobs says, “Airecon was founded on the principle of being hyper-focused on the customer’s process to deliver custom, reliable, and high-quality industrial ventilation systems and metal products. The approach was adopted to ‘Discover the Airecon Difference.’ They understood that they needed to help customers grow and asked what they could do as engineers, skilled tradesmen, and contractors to make a difference.”
Airecon builds control systems and equipment to handle industrial dust, fumes, mist, and scrap metal as well as an array of custom industrial metal products such as tanks, totes, bins, carts, hoppers, platforms, and chutes in a variety of classifications, including foodgrade stainless steel. Manufacturing partnerships can be key to success, says Jacobs, as not every company is able to make every product required by a customer. Airecon partners with the some of the best-known equipment manufacturers in the world, including Donaldson Torit, IEP Technologies, and New York Blower.
Jacobs calls the Cincinnati region a manufacturing hotbed with strengths in food, flavorings, materials, metals, automotive, pharmaceuticals, paper, pigments, and aerospace. Part of the region’s “secret sauce” is the collective focus on training both specialists and support staff. “We employ extremely talented sheet metal workers, which allows us to provide high quality and diverse metal fabrications that adhere to SMACNA standards,” he says.
Simply hiring an exceptional team isn’t enough, though. Companies must also create an environment to retain, grow, and protect their workers. “A wise person once told us, Hope is a poor strategy,” says Jacobs. “Mottos aside, we all have hopes and dreams, but it’s more about how we achieve them. It’s investing in our employees and facilities. We value high retention and a safe workplace that empowers our team to solve problems together. We strongly believe the grass is greener where you water it.”
Airecon has experiened “tremendous horizontal and vertical growth” over the last 10 years, says Jacobs, and he expects significant growth in the next five to 10 years. “We employ, partner with, and serve a one-of-a-kind community,” he says. “We don’t take this success for granted.”
Steinhauser
Cincinnati is rich in legacy businesses, where manufacturing leaders pass down their enterprise from one generation to the next. That was the plan with Albert Steinhauser, who founded a commercial printing company in his garage in 1905. His son Harold was slated to take over the family business until he was tragically killed in World War II, so another son, Wilbur, stepped up in his absence, ultimately building the company into what it is today.
Albert’s initial customer service mission might remain the same across the span of a century, but the “how” morphed with technology and leadership changes. When Wilbur took over in 1945, he launched the company into the label market and self-mailers while driving growth through creative marketing initiatives, says Tara Halpin, Steinhauser CEO and owner. The family passed the torch again in 1977, when Wibur’s son Robert Steinhauser was named president and the business relocated to Newport. His priorities deepened customer relationships, upheld a culture of integrity, and pushed for innovation, she says.
As Robert ’s daughter, Halpin became president in 2005, and she and her brother, Trevor Steinhauser, bought the company two years later. They decided to sell the commercial printing business to focus specifically on labels, a niche they built with just a single customer. Today the company offers printing support for beverage, household, personal care, and spirits companies such as Poo-Pourri, Mr. Clean, Dawn, Swiffer, and The Kind.
Halpin became CEO and sole owner in 2018 and has focused on staying independent and making the best company decisions confidently and quickly. “What makes Steinhauser unique is that we’re one of the few woman-owned, family-owned, and independently-owned companies of our size in the custom label printing industry,” she says. “That independence allows us to serve our customers in ways our competitors can’t. We gain alignment easily and stay fully focused on our customers and their brands.”
Halpin says there are many benefits the company enjoys being headquartered in the region. “Cincinnati in general is an affordable place to live with lots of safe neighborhoods, making it easy to find qualified employees,” she says. “There’s a robust supply chain with resources to support you, and the airport makes us easily accessible. Newport itself is incredibly walkable for employees and customers alike. The community is tight-knit, allowing us to develop relationships with other local government and businesses.”
Key partnerships have included BE NKY Growth Partnership, which helped Steinhauser connect with leaders in Newport government. Halpin is hoping to soon expand connections with local schools, from middle school through the university level, to educate young people on the manufacturing industry’s potential and to provide co-ops and internships for career development.
Long-Stanton
In 1835, when Cincinnati was known as “Queen of the West” and the country’s largest inland city, manufacturing was booming. John Stanton became an apprentice at Ira Bisbee’s steel brand and stencil-cutting business, founded by Ira’s father Ziba, and together they produced tokens for politicians and, during the Civil War, fractional legal tender called “store cards,” which acted as a form of currency and helped businesses advertise their services.
Stanton eventually took over the downtown-based company and rechristened it Long-Stanton, the name it still goes by six generations later. “I have a full-size shape of Abraham Lincoln’s profile that we produced, a thin tin type of metal stamped out in his profile and painted,” says Long-Stanton President Marvin Cunningham. “Back in the day, people used to have that kind of stuff hanging in their house.”
Fast forward a century, and the company made an essential stamped-metal part used in Easy Bake ovens. The next time you’re at Arnold’s Bar & Grill downtown, Cunningham says, look across Eighth Street to the parking lot where a small factory could barely keep up with mass consumer interest in the product. “All of a sudden we were running seven days a week, multiple shifts,” he says. “They would deliver steel on Monday, and by Sunday afternoon there was no more space. Then we’d start all over again. That took us from a small company to a larger one over 20 years, until the Easy Bake ovens switched to plastic components.”
In the 1960s and ’70s, Long-Stanton turned to nozzles on gas tank pumps. In the ’80s and ’90s it was air compressors, and the turn of the century brought a focus on aviation such as airplane brake parts. Today, says Cunningham, the West Chester-based company is responsible for lots of “odds and ends,” or necessary parts that are “buried inside an assembly that nobody thinks about.”
The company is a minor player in the larger geopolitcal buffeting tied to tariffs and trade agreements. Cunningham says he helped establish a Long-Stanton manufacturing facility in China in the early 2000s, but the work came back to this region five years later—as is the case with a number of his manufacturing customers. “A lot of stuff that’s easy to reshore has been reshored,” he says. “Some of our customers have moved their operations south, especially to areas like the Carolinas and Virginia. I think they did that to try to save a bit on labor and not have to move to Asia.”
Running a company with nearly two centuries of history is a “blessing and a curse,” says Cunningham, who took over the president role from his father. “There’s an immediate trust you don’t necessarily get with a company that’s been around for five years, because customers know we aren’t going to disappear tomorrow,” he says. “At the same time, starting with a blank piece of paper would be really nice sometimes.”
Cunningham hesitates to refer to himself as “president,” remembering his childhood when he’d ride machines on the laps of some of the workers who are still at Long-Stanton and whose families have served the company for multiple generations. He says he can’t imagine corporate life at a Fortune 500 firm with constant meetings; his employees meet once a month. “We’d rather just spend our time making the stuff,” he says. “We have 30 people on staff and more machines than people.”
Even with the small staff, the company is able to offer customers lots of manufacturing and shipping flexibility. For example, says Cunnignham, if he’s producing an order with multiple items, Long-Stanton will offer to store them and deliver them quarterly so the customer can buy three years’ worth of inventory at a time. “Now they’ll be slightly more expensive because of holding them,” he says, but not as expensive as some other options. “Everyone’s happy. I’m interested in those kinds of win-wins with our customers.”
He recommends that business owners focus on networking to “not let their bubbles get too small” and get to know five people in different industries who you can reach out to whenever you need help or advice. “We’re not making anything top secret. We’re just trying to give all of our employees a comfortable life and stay open another 100 or 200 years.”
National Flag Company
There aren’t many hand-produced products that people pledge allegiance to on a daily basis—at least not in Cincinnati. The owners of National Flag, however, understand that they’ve been cut from a different cloth since the company’s founding in 1869. Current company owner Arthur (Artie) Schaller III started out sweeping floors, folding flags, and cutting material at age 14. “My first paycheck was for $18 and some change,” he says. “I remember having my own money to buy candy at concession stands. Seemed like a big win at the time.”
After taking over for his father in 2021, Schaller says his employees are bringing home much larger paychecks but remain commiteed to authentic craftsmanship in the face of evolving technology. “We’re one of a few companies in the U.S. producing fully-sewn custom flags and banners,” he says. “We do offer printed options, but our niche in the industry is custom appliqué and embroidery work. Custom products are still stitched by talented seamstresses and put together with scissors, yardsticks, and safety pins. Nothing automated.”
Schaller understands that each American flag his West End-based company embodies freedom, pride, unity, and hope for customers. He also recognizes that often the product is displayed out in the elements and will fray and tear over time and needs to be replaced. “So flag quality is a big deal,” he says. “Standard flags last eight to 10 months, but Mother Nature is always unpredictable.”
Business is good these days for National Flag, as American-made products are making a slight comeback, he says, even before tariffs were implemented. “Our biggest challenge has been overseas options and pricing since the dot-com era,” says Schaller. “Anyone can open an Amazon store and say their flags are USA-made. Whether that’s true or not is a different story.”
Social media has played an integral part in helping the company demonstrate and communicate its dedication to craftsmanship. “We can show exactly where a flag is being made, how it’s being made, and by who,” he says. “Customers can see where their money is going. When you tell people the business is 155 years old, a sense of trust comes with that as well.”
As the country readies to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence next year, the flag industry is preparing for increased sales on all things red, white, and blue, Schaller says. The last time he saw interest like this right after September 11, 2001. “We sold out of everything related to American flag items in a couple days and weren’t able to keep an inventory for another three months,” he recalls.
He offers some well-earned advice to those planning a parade, fireworks show, or any patriotic celebration in 2026: “Get your flag and decoration order in as soon as possible.”
