Company Profile
MSA
Company Overview
About MSA
Our business is safety. We’ve been the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality safety products since 1914. MSA products may be simple to use and maintain, but they’re also highly-sophisticated devices and protective gear — the result of countless R&D hours, relentless testing, and an unwavering commitment to quality that saves lives and protects thousands of men and women each and every day. Many of our most popular products integrate multiple combinations of electronics, mechanical systems, and advanced materials to ensure that users around the world remain protected in even the most hazardous of situations.
Our dedication to safety has been the key to our impressive year-over-year growth. In 8 of the past 10 years we’ve achieved record growth numbers, with annual revenues of more than $1 billion.
Our Mission and Values Drive Everything We Do
Our Mission
MSA's mission is to see to it that men and women may work in safety and that they, their families, and their communities may live in health throughout the world.
Our Vision
Our vision is to be the world’s leading provider of safety solutions that protect workers when life is on the line. We pursue this vision with an unsurpassed commitment to integrity, customer service, and product innovation that creates exceptional value for all MSA stakeholders.
Our Values
We are committed to protecting the health and safety of our customers. We are, quite simply, an organization built on integrity.
MSA's Global Values
Our Commitment to Customer Satisfaction
We aim to provide customers with a superior customer experience. It begins with the development of high-quality products and continues with support services that exceed customer expectations. Our customer service promise is simple: To make the world safer, one person at a time.
Safety That’s Assured By Quality & Research
MSA provides a comprehensive line of safety products used by workers in the military, fire service, law enforcement, construction, oil and gas, chemical, and many other industries. MSA also sells consumer and contractor safety products at select home center retail outlets under the Safety Works brand.
Several of our products, including our ALTAIR® line of portable gas detectors, our V-Gard® Hard Hats, Cairns® Fire Helmets, and FireHawk® Air Masks, are recognized as the de facto standard in their category. Each of our hundreds of products is designed to ensure high quality, backed by industry-leading research & development.
Quality
To ensure we create the most effective and reliable products possible, we craft many of our components in-house. We also use raw materials when we formulate, machine, tool, or mold our products. This insistence on in-house quality guarantees greater manufacturing control and unequaled quality assurance for safety equipment users.
For more information, please view our current ISO Certificate
Unrivaled Research & Development
MSA operates the most complete research and development facilities in the industry. Our crown jewel is the John T. Ryan Memorial Laboratory near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the world's most sophisticated proving ground for safety products. Our research continually evolves to incorporate the latest in computer-aided design, laser modeling, and testing.
Consistent Industry Awards
MSA is a recipient of the prestigious Outstanding Corporate Innovator award – the Product Development and Management Association’s highest honor. We’re extremely proud to be recognized along with previous winners including Apple, BMW, Sprint Nextel and Hewlett-Packard.
Company History
A Defining Moment
It was a horrific workplace tragedy that led to the creation of MSA, the worldwide leader in worker protection and safety product innovation. On the morning of March 26, 1912, the Jed Mine in West Virginia exploded. In a flash, methane gas ignited and more than 80 miners lost their lives. From this tragedy, mine engineer John T. Ryan Sr. had an epiphany: “If I could spend my life doing what I can to lessen the likelihood of the occurrence of such terrible disasters, I shall feel in the end that my life had been well spent.”
Ryan recruited colleague George H. Deike to help realize his vision for a new company. Recognizing the critical importance of dependable, safe mining equipment, they went straight to one of the country’s great thinkers: Thomas Edison. The brilliant inventor helped Ryan and Deike create the electric cap lamp which, over the next 25 years, reduced mine explosions by an astounding 75 percent. Of all his inventions, this was the one that did the most for humanity, Edison would later say in life.
In the decades that have come and gone, MSA has continued to lead the charge for workplace safety. We’ve led the way with small first-aid kits and portable methane detectors, and harnessed new technologies to produce state-of-the-art thermal imaging cameras, ballistic helmets, and leading edge systems for gas and flame detection.
But we’ve never forgotten where we came from, or why we’re here. We’re called The Safety Company for a reason – a very important reason: Our goal, every single day, is to provide our customers with dependable, high-quality products, instruments, and service to help ensure a safe return home at the end of each work day.
Notable Accomplishments / Recognition
MSA is a recipient of the prestigious Outstanding Corporate Innovator award – the Product Development and Management Association’s highest honor. We’re extremely proud to be recognized along with previous winners including Apple, BMW, Sprint Nextel and Hewlett-Packard.