Having returned from Vietnam and graduating as a mechanical engineer from Oklahoma State University, Mike Renfro founded Renfro Associates, Inc. in 1979 as a manufacturer’s representative firm.  As the business grew, Renfro recognized that just about every valve, actuator, flow meter and switch had to be mated to something else, which meant a ready market for custom welding and machining.

    Since he had literally grown up in and around machine shops, Renfro saw no reason why some of that business couldn’t be directed their way.  So that his growing business could offer custom welding and custom manufactured products, he added a manufacturing/machining department, as well as taking the necessary steps to qualify as an ASME weld shop.  He tapped his brother Pat Renfro to head up the expanded business operation.

    During the firm’s early years, times couldn’t have been much better. During the late 70’s and early 80’s the energy industry was booming and Renfro Associates, Inc. prospered.  Then came the oil bust and the energy markets fell on hard times.  But Renfro’s pay-as-you-go approach had kept the company debt free, enabling it to prosper, even in the face of declining markets.

    By 1996, Renfro Associates, Inc. had outgrown its original headquarters and the firm moved its enterprise to a larger, state of the art facility in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.