William J. and Ruth Peshina founded Royal Wire Products, Inc. on July 7, 1953. It was a very small and humble beginning. William J. was responsible for manufacturing various wire forms for national companies and Ruth took care of all the bookkeeping. The products ranged from lampshade frames to grills for fans to display racks. In 1967, after graduation from Bowling Green State University, William F. and his new wife, Gail returned to help his parents expand the growing family company.

By chance, Royal Wire received a proposal from a large company dealing in the air pollution industry. The proposal showed William J. and William F. for the first time a drawing for a bag cage. The potential customer asked if Royal Wire could make them and of course, Royal Wire accepted the challenge willingly. The only problem was figuring out how they were going to produce. They must have done ok.
Because, in the following months more bag cage orders started coming in at an increasingly steady pace. That’s when Royal Wire realized they needed to manufacture their own bag cage machinery to keep up with the growing demand in the market.

Today, we have over 15 automatic bag cage machines. Royal Wire manufactured them specifically to serve the air pollution industry. Since 1967, we’ve manufactured hundreds of thousands of bag cages for our customers all over the world.

Rumor has it that Royal Wire invented the two-piece bag cage. The story is that one-day Royal Wire got an order for a bag cage that was 168-inches long. At the time, Royal Wire was located on the third floor of a warehouse and had to use a freight elevator to get materials in and out. A 168-inch bag cage would not fit in the elevator after production. The solutions…manufacture a two-piece bag cage! Our challenge at the time was turn our logistic problem into a benefit for the customer. The selling point was with a two-piece bag cage it would be easier to install in a bag house. The construction was taken and worked for our customers well…today the two-piece bag cage is a very common style today in the industry.

Royal Wire’s second most popular product line is the equine division. As a child, William F. had always wanted horses, but the family could never afford them. One day, William F. called his dear friends; Tom and Ruth Hausser to ask them to help him get involved in the Standardbred business-just as a hobby.

Then, in 1976, William F. and his wife, Gail bought their first broodmare, named Racing Pet. Pet ended up aborting her first foal, devastating the entire family. So that was the end of breeding for the Peshina family. Next, William F. tried his hand at racing horses. The first race horse William F. bought was Bell Tara, a pacer. That was the beginning, with no end in sight.

The story continues, in 1978, another piece of the horse industry came into William F. and Gail’s life. One day with her Brownie troop, their daughter Paige went on a field trip to a boarding stable to see how a farm ran and to ride horses. For months after, all the family heard about was her horse ride. So on her seventh birthday she received riding lessons. That led to the whole family going to horse shows every weekend. While at the shows, Gail would get the kids ready to show and William F. would draw up ideas to make hauling tack to all the shows easier.

Originally, the Royal Wire equine line was just for the family’s personal use. They would find ways to make the daily running of their barns and going to horse shows easier by making products out of wire. As the years went on and more and more people saw the products, the products started selling themselves. Now the equine line has over fifty products and is headed by Paige Peshina Merrill, who has over 20 years of riding and showing experience in the horse industry.

At present the family tradition still continues to grow at Royal Wire. The children of William F. and Gail Peshina have joined the ranks at Royal Wire. Paige and her husband Tom Merrill work along with Dean Benes, Gail’s brother, at the headquarters in Cleveland Ohio. Brent Peshina, their son, is working at the Charlotte, North Carolina plant.