MBN USA

April 20, 2021

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Auto supplier provides steel products for Toyota

Kirk Lewis hopes that the success of his companies serves as an inspiration to young minorities.

“I want to be an example to minority entrepreneurs and show them that with hard work and determination, you can be successful,” said Lewis, who owns three companies that are dedicated steel and aluminum blank suppliers for Toyota Motor North America Inc. “African American businesses have to reach back and show our communities that we can run successful multigenerational companies.”

He is chairman and president of Blue Springs Metals LLC, Georgetown Metal Processing LLC and the newly launched Madison Metal Processing LLC.

Learning the business

Lewis’ introduction to the steel industry started when he joined Bing Steel Inc. to help launch and run a stamping company that supplied steel to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. He took a seven-year break from Bing Steel to work for Ford Motor Co. and earn his MBA. He later returned to Bing where he developed a strong relationship with Toyota.

His strong relationship with Toyota led to an opportunity to supply a new Mississippi Toyota plant. In 2012, he founded Blue Springs Metals, headquartered in Blue Springs, Mississippi, to supply steel products for the Corolla. Three years later, he founded Georgetown Metal Processing to service Toyota’s Georgetown, Kentucky, plant that produces the Camry, Avalon, Lexus ES 350 and RAV 4.

Madison Metal Processing, Lewis’ newest plant, opened in 2020 to support Mazda Toyota Manufacturing USA Inc. Headquartered near Huntsville, Alabama, the plant is scheduled to begin production later this year.

His son Joe Lewis has joined him in running the companies, and together the two created Southern Mobility Products to position the business for the evolution of the automobile industry.

“We will use Southern Mobility to evolve our business, as the auto industry morphs from the traditional car company to a mobility company,” Kirk Lewis said. “We’re not 100% sure what the industry will look like when rideshare, carshare and electric or autonomous vehicles models are the norm. There will need to be different services to support the industry, and we need to be prepared. Southern Mobility doesn’t have any employees yet, and we’re not sure what the business model is going to look like, but it will let us explore the possibilities.”

A year of change

The COVID-19 pandemic brought changes to the trio of companies. In addition to reanalyzing workstations and practices to incorporate social distancing and transitioning to a work-from-home model, the company faced a shutdown of several weeks.

“Fortunately, we had strong financial controls in place to help survive the shutdown,” Lewis said. “We were fortunate that we were able to see our way through this. Our focus for 2021 is going to be on stabilizing the business from the COVID-19 impact and reworking our strategic plan.”

While the pandemic brought challenges, it also brought opportunities that will lead to increased flexibility, he said.

“We learned that certain functions could work remotely,” Lewis said. “Now we need to develop processes to be more efficient and effective. It allows us to expand our horizons when we look for people and consolidate functions across our three companies. If I need someone to do a particular job that could work remotely, I don’t need a person to live near our facilities or only work for one of our locations. We have flexibility, and we’ve learned a lot through the pandemic.”

To learn more about Blue

Springs Metals, visit bluespringsmetals.com