Business View Magazine | January 2020

90 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 Magnum Venus Products (MVP) is a leading supplier of fluid movement and production solutions with a long and proud history of innovation. The company serves a multitude of manufacturers in a variety of industries, including: automotive, aerospace, marine, oil & gas, wind turbine, bath and shower, infrastructure, pool and spa, construction, recreation, and more. Its products include: gelcoat equipment, chopper equipment, adhesive and sealant systems, applicator guns, automation equipment, and additive manufacturing systems. Magnum Venus Products began as Graves Spray Supply. Founded in 1938, in Chicago, by Jim Hedger, Sr., Graves was a distributor for coating equipment that quickly gained a reputation for excellence within the automotive industry with customers like Ford, Chrysler, GM, and GE. In 1950, Graves moved to the manufacturing of automated paint spray equipment and embarked on the newly developing industry of spray-up fiberglass manufacturing dispensing systems, eventually becoming the largest FRP (Fiber-Reinforced Plastics) equipment distributor in North America. In 1954, Venus Products was founded near Seattle by Frank Ives, which also provided equipment for the FRP industry. Venus was the first to design, patent, and produce internal mix, fiberglass spray technology. In 1970, Hedger also founded Magnum Industries as a division of Graves for the design and manufacture of spray-up fiberglass manufacturing equipment. Magnum developed many ground-breaking products including the patented Airless MAGNUM VENUS Products A PROUD HISTORY OF INNOVATION