Our Story

Osborn is the leading manufacturer of brushes for a wide variety of applications. We have become experts in our field and are constantly evolving.

This is how it all started ...

1887 - John J. Osborn founded the Osborn Manufacturing Company
1890 - Internationalization - First branch in Brussels, Belgium
1894 - Franklin Smith acquires 97% of the company
1902 - Osborn moves to Cleveland.
1910 - Machinery division established
1914 - Rise to leading manufacturer of foundry equipment

1930 - Entry into the polishing business
1942 - Modernization of facilities
1947 - Hand brush production moves to Henderson, Kentucky
1960 - Load Runners product segment established.
1965 - Roadshows in Europe and the USA
1968 - Franklin Smith dies

“Nothing stands still. Everything goes forward or goes backward. That is true whether you are talking of a man or a family or a fortune or a business or a nation or a world. To try to keep things exactly as they are is to deteriorate. Here at Osborn we have to improve all the time. We must either sell better things than others sell at the same price, or we must make our things so much better than the other fellow’s that people will gladly pay a higher price for ours.”

-Franklin Smith

1969 - Acquisition of Schmitz & Ludwig GmbH (Burgwald)
1979 - Acquisition of the Jackson Buff Company
1980 - Participation in international trade fairs begins
1985 - Foundation of Jason Inc.
1986 - Société Anonyme des Machines (Osborn SAMO) founded in Paris, France

1986 - Jason acquires Brushes International
1987 - Jason begins public trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange
1992 - Hand brush production relocated to Nogales, Mexico
2000 - Privatization, with more than 40 key members of management taking an ownership stake.

2004 - New brush manufacturing facility in Richmond, IN
2006 - Acquisition of Lippert-Unipol GmbH (Haan and Epfenbach).
2011 - Test robots installed at R&D centres in Burgwald/Germany and Richmond/USA.

2012 - New Osborn trademark
2013 - Modernization of facilities in Romania, Germany, China and India
2015 - Acquisition of Dronco GmbH (Wunsiedel/Bavaria) as part of Osborn
2019 - Schaffner (USA) is integrated into Osborn
2020 - Matchless Metal Polish Company (USA) is acquired