Company History
Kays Engineering opened its doors for business December 1, 1980 in Marshall, Missouri.
Founded by Ed Kays, the company began as a small welding and repair shop, with Ed as the sole full-time employee along with three additional part-time employees.
The company quickly progressed into a designer and builder of custom machinery for the automotive industry.
The increase in business helped the company expand to more than 30 employees spread over four buildings. Additional staff were added in Engineering, Accounting, and Production Control.
Kays Engineering entered a new market in 1994 with the acquisition of DeHoff.
DeHoff is a manufacturer of deep hole drilling machines and was located in Cranston, Rhode Island. The DeHoff manufacturing operation was moved to the Marshall facility in 1996. To accommodate the new product line, the company relocated to a new 50,000 square foot building in the Marshall-Saline Industrial Park.
Kays Engineering becomes the biggest supplier of deep hole drilling machines in the USA.
Another deep hole drilling machine manufacturer, Eldorado, was purchased in 2002 and relocated to Marshall from their original Milford, Connecticut location. This acquisition further diversified the Kays Engineering product lineup.
Kays Engineering acquires third gundrilling brand with TechniDrill.
In 2020 the TechniDrill brand, a competing gundrill machine manufacturer in Kent, Ohio, was acquired. This further solidified Kays Engineering as the leading gundrilling machine manufacturer in America.
Today, over 60 employees design and manufacture the DeHoff and Eldorado brands.
All machines are built-to-order in our Marshall plant. We have customers in many different industries, including automotive, aerospace, medical devices, firearms, petroleum, agriculture, and plastic molding. We’re proud that our machines, which are known for their precision and reliability, are used worldwide in 30 countries and 5 continents!
