The 45-Year History of Central Steel Service, Inc.

Central Steel Service, Inc. was founded in 1981 as a distributor of high-strength, atmospheric corrosion-resistant steel products. Today, Central Steel Service, Inc. is proud to celebrate 45 years of business in January 2026. 

The History of Central Steel Service, Inc. 

Central Steel Service, Inc. was founded in 1981 by James Woods, Robert Perry, A.T. Scott and Oman Phillips. In its beginning, Central Steel Service solely supplied Process Equipment with high strength atmospheric corrosion-resistant materials, referred to as Cor-ten. Process Equipment utilized the atmospheric corrosion-resistant material for a variety of their industrial pollution control products as an enhancement to their product life cycles over the standard A36 grade used by most of their competitors. Since 1981, Central Steel Service has now serviced over 11,000 customers from across the United States and internationally. 

In 2004, Keith Woods, the current owner and CEO of Central Steel Service, and the son of one of the original founders, bought out the founding owners and began the second generation of Woods family ownership. Keith Woods implemented a growth strategy by focusing on increasing the geographic area of service nationally & internationally,  as well as in 2009, adding additional products in the Cor-Ten family, such as square and rectangular tubing and pipe. 

Central Steel Service also injected additional capital into the business, purchasing two additional high-definition plasma burning tables, which equipped our team to improve service and supply value-added products to our customers by serving as the initial stage of their fabrication operations. We have continued to increase our storage capacity with the addition of 90,000 square feet of indoor storage space, which brings us to more than 125,000 square feet of indoor storage space today. This warehouse space allows us to maintain over 10,000 tons of high strength corrosion resistant steel products in Angle, Channel, Plate, Sheet, Bar, Square Tube, Rectangular Tube and Pipe,  which results in fast shipment turnarounds for our customers. 

During early 2014, the third generation of family involvement began with the addition of James Woods, son of Keith Woods, and currently serving as VP of Procurement after 10 years of service. 

In June of 2016, the company welcomed Thomas Woods, son of Keith Woods, to its operations, and after 10 years of service, now serves as VP Sales & Customer Service. 

During 2017, a fire destroyed our original office building. we rebuilt our office building using weathering steels. We utilize self-weathering steel in as many facets of the construction as possible, and today our office building serves as a model for the various applications of weathering steels, including the building façade itself, planters, bollards, stairs, fencing and signs. Although quite the set-back, with the dedicated efforts of all Central Steel Service employees, the company “weathered” the storm and became a stronger, more dedicated team through this re-building process. 

During 2019, the company welcomed two additional members of the Woods family. Mary Kathryn Moshier, daughter of Keith Woods, was hired as a freelance social media manager and content provider, providing services to allow us to stay in close contact with our customers, as well as keeping our customers informed of various applications and technical knowledge related to atmospheric corrosion resistant steels. As a result of our growth from adding ASTM A847, weathering steel square and rectangular tubing and pipe, back in 2009, we needed a person to focus solely on the procurement of this product line, so Michael Woods, son of Keith Woods, was hired to perform this task and today, after six years of service, is the Hollow Structural Sections product manager today. 

Since 2019 through today, we have remained committed to our “niche” of supplying High Strength and High Strength Weathering steel products. We understand that having a great product is key, but without a great team of employees that great product would never get to our customers. We are blessed and honored to have hired and retained quite the team over the past 45 years, many who remain with us today, listed below followed by their dedicated years of service to our customers:

Joe Leslie, Shop Superintendent – 32 years 

Ernie Leslie, Assistant Shop Superintendent/Burning Machine Operator – 31 years

Russ Guyton, Sales/Account Manager – 28 years (Retired 05/2020) 

Travis Badeuax, National Account Manager – 26 years (Retired 10/2024) 

Kelli Buryn, Office and Accounting Manger – 25 years

Ross Purser, Shipping/Receiving leader – 25 years

Mark Brown, Shipping/Receiving/Burning Machine Operator – 24 years

Sammy Flores, Fleet Equipment Manager/Truckdriver – 23 years

Melvin Windsor, Head of Burning Machine Operations – 20 years

Jennie Schoggen, Receptionist – 21 years 

Jeremy Kay, Burning Machine Operator – 18 years

Jay Guyton, Account Manger – 18 years 

Jason Parker, Account Manager – 14 years 

Brandon Senatore, Shipping/Receiving/Burning Machine Operator – 11 years

Michael Dennis, Shipping/Receiving – 11 years 

Brandon Flores, Truckdriver – 10 years