He initially focused on institutional business located in rural Missouri. He greeted each customer with an honest smile, a firm handshake, and a commitment to partner with them to find solutions to their cleaning needs. This worked well and Russ was met with great success. After a couple of years, Russโ customer base had grown significantly so he hired his first sales representative to cover the current customers and moved to a new part of the state to establish a second territory. This same process was repeated several times and met with the same success. Each time Russ would establish a customer base and then transition the territory to a new representative. He did this throughout the Midwest. In 1983, Russ moved the business from rural Richmond, Missouri, where he was working out of a shed next to his farmhouse, and built his first 6000 square foot warehouse in Blue Springs, Missouri. As he continued to grow his company, Meyer continued selling in the same manner, adding sales people and support staff along the way. Then in 1987, Meyer Laboratory was formed and began manufacturing its own products custom designed by their company chemist. In 1995, during a meeting, Meyer Laboratory tested ID-55 on Container Packaging's equipment, anilox rolls and printing plates. The product had a significant impact on their clean-up. Meyer Laboratory utilized the technology designed for their ID-55 and created a line of products. This new line of products provided manufacturing facilities component based options to be custom blended for the facilities specific soils and needs. This led to significant growth within the organization. In 2000, Meyer Laboratory turned its focus to environmentally friendly chemical programs. This transition mirrored the going โGreenโ trend within the manufacturing industry. During this same period Meyer purchased a competitor company, Century Labs, and expanded to a 110,000 square foot facility to accommodate additional manufacturing needs. In 2006, Meyer expanded into the Canadian market and Meyer of Canada was established. Later that year, Meyer purchased a manufacturing facility in Canada and began production of similar chemicals to be distributed throughout the Canadian marketplace. The success in Canada led to the production and establishment of Meyer de Mexico in 2009. In 2010, while other companies were facing economic down-turns, Meyer Laboratory posted its best sales and profit year. This was due to strong vision and leadership and the company's mission of pursuing excellence in all aspects of life. Meyer Laboratory continues to expand into new markets and gains new customers as a result. Russโ vision many years ago was to create a company that would set the standards in cleaning solutions. He believes in what Meyer does and insists that every person in the company greet customers with that same handshake, smile and commitment that lead to his success from the very beginning.
