This year marks the 75th anniversary of John Henry Foster, St Louis (JHF), a truly one-of-a-kind organization driven by over 165 employees who own 65 percent of the company. Since implementing the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) in 1984, JHF has gone the extra mile to guarantee that each member of its workforce feels a deep sense of security and opportunity while upholding core values of loyalty, teamwork, respect, trust, integrity, and honesty. Functioning within this family-type atmosphere, JHF has emerged as an industry leader in the spectrum of fluid power and industrial automation solutions. Bolstered by over 200 years of combined expertise in design, engineering, and hydraulic engineering, JHF specializes in different variants of motion control, be it fluid, power, electrical, or mechanical. Also adept in electromechanical and hydraulically-managed solutions for machine safety, JHF provides both off-the-shelf parts for repairs and maintenance, as well as custom-fabricated products for unique applications.

While acknowledging that every application and business is different, JHF does not design a one-size-fits-all solution and instead customizes and integrates products that best fit a customer’s needs. “Our programming crew—capable of integrating solutions to all types of machines and control systems—deliver user-friendly solutions that are built upon an open architecture. Therefore, our clients don’t require an IT person or an integration expert to deal with controllers or programming. Rather than selling products out of the box, we integrate them as solutions and meet any and every challenge for our customers,” says Darren Warren, engineering manager at JHF, which manufactures a range of products in Hydraulics, Compressed Air, Aluminum Framing, Industrial & Hydraulic Hose, Pneumatics, and Linear Motion. According to Warren, JHF is “extremely adaptive” to new technologies and isn’t averse to partnering or acquiring new product lines to effectively meet a client’s requirement. JHF’s industry-trusted partners include Firestone, Sun Hydraulics Corporation and Norgren Limited.

Besides its suite of ISO 9001:2015 products, JHF provides a range of services and training and resources to its customers who are spread across the board.