Glenco celebrates 70th anniversary

Glenco Inc., a Clovis’ structural steel fabricator, is celebrating its 70th birthday on Friday.

“We started business in 1954 when my grandfather, Stanley Julian, opened the business,” Matthew Glenn said. Glenn is the owner of Glenco, Inc.

“Grandad moved from Las Vegas (NM) to Clovis. He was a Santa Fe railroad man. He saw a need for the company in Clovis,” Glenn said.

Glenn believes Glenco steel may be found in the construction of about 200 buildings, give or take, in Clovis.

“Schools, churches, banks, Cannon Air Force Base. We’re the erector set of building; we build the skeleton of the building,” Glenn said.

In his office at Glenco, Glenn has a 1987 article from “The Clovis News Journal” about the company.

“It’s framed and on the wall with the headline: ‘Firm cuts it in the steel industry with straight A in innovation,’” Glenn said.

Glenn said the headline comes from the article: “We’ve got to make straight As to survive out here,” Glenn’s dad Larry Glenn told the newspaper. “Schools ought to stress that more. You can’t cut it with just Bs.”

The younger Glenn said, “I still try to do business like my dad and granddad did. I just add technology.”

There’ll be a celebration at Glenco, 4600 Mabry Drive, on Friday for invited guests.

“We’ve invited our suppliers, our customers, retired employees, past employees, basically the people who were involved in the past 70 years,” Glenn said.