About Us
- About Mull Group
The Three generations.
Sixty-five years.
One valley.
From one shop to
eleven companies.
Nail City Bronze begins pouring metal.
The Wheeling-area foundry that would later become a Mull Group company opens its doors. Nail City Bronze becomes one of the longest-operating brass and bronze foundries in the Ohio Valley — a heritage that continues today, casting bronze for mill equipment all over the country.
Bill Mull starts Mull Machine
In 1961, Bill Mull opens Mull Machine on North River Road in Wheeling, West Virginia — a single machine shop serving the steel mills of the Ohio Valley. He puts in years of work that turn a small operation into a name local mills know they can trust. The company is built one part, one customer, one shift at a time.
W. Quay Mull II purchases Mull Machine.
In 1983, W. Quay Mull II buys Mull Machine from his parents and begins building on what they started. Over the next forty years, he grows the company from a single shop into a family of eleven operations — machine shops, foundry, galvanized steel production, commercial real estate, and more. He sees opportunities his parents never could have, and he has the courage to take them.
W. Quay Mull II passes away.
After four decades of leadership, W. Quay Mull II passes away on December 28, 2023, leaving behind a company transformed and a legacy that runs through every part of Mull Group's operations. He is remembered every day by the people he hired, mentored, and built this company alongside.
The next chapter begins.
The third generation of the Mull family steps in to lead the company forward — committed to honoring what was built, growing what is possible, and keeping American manufacturing rooted in the Ohio Valley. The mission has not changed in 65 years. The scope of what comes next is just beginning to take shape.
- Where We're Going
THE NEXT SIXTY-FIVE starts now.
Diversifying Beyond the Mills
Apprenticeship Program
Committed to the Ohio Valley
A note from James B. Mull.
When I think about Mull Group, I think first about the people who got us here — and then I think about how much further we can go.
In 1961, my grandfather, Bill Mull, started Mull Machine on North River Road in Wheeling, West Virginia. One shop. A handful of machinists. A reputation built one part at a time. In 1983, my father, W. Quay Mull II, bought the company and spent the next forty years growing it into eleven companies — machine shops, a foundry that’s been pouring bronze since 1877, galvanized steel, commercial real estate. He passed away on December 28, 2023. I think of him every day I walk through these buildings — and I measure my work by a simple standard: would what we’re doing today make him proud?
I’m the third generation to lead this company. I came up through the work, not around it. And I can tell you this: I have never been more optimistic about American manufacturing than I am right now.
The country is relearning something the Ohio Valley never forgot — that you cannot have a strong nation without people who make things. Reshoring is real. Aerospace, energy, and defense need precision manufacturers who can engineer, machine, cast, and assemble under one roof, and there are fewer of us every year. Mull Group intends to be one of the companies that answers that call.
Steel mills built us, and they will always be at our core. But the same capabilities that keep a hot strip mill running — heavy machining, in-house bronze, real engineering, assembly we stand behind — are exactly what the next generation of American industry needs. We are investing in new equipment, new technology, and new ways of working that most shops our size won’t touch. We’re not chasing the future. We’re building it in the same buildings where we built the last sixty-five years.
Every Mull Group facility sits within eight miles of where my grandfather started. That is not nostalgia — it is a bet, and I’m making it with my eyes open.
The Ohio Valley shipped the steel, the bronze, and played a major part in keeping the country running. Plenty of companies left, we didn’t, and we won’t. Because the thing this valley never lost is the thing that can’t be bought or relocated: people who take pride in skilled work. When we hire a machinist, we’re often hiring the third generation of a trade family — the same way I’m the third generation of mine.
That’s why I am committed to growing our apprenticeship programs. Our machinists, foundry workers, and engineers of 2050 will be made here, on our floor, by our people. My grandfather bet on this valley in 1961. My father doubled down in 1983. I’m all in.
Mull Group was never built by one name on a sign. It was built by three generations of my family, yes — but just as much by the machinists who ran the lathes on second shift, the foundry workers who poured bronze in July heat, the welders, the engineers, the office staff who kept it all moving, and the customers who trusted us with the work that couldn’t fail. Some of those people spent forty years on our floor. Some of their names I’ll never know. Every one of them is part of why we’re still here.
Sixty-five years in, Mull Group is just getting started.
