SPRINGVILLE, Utah — Art Wing still fondly remembers when his late dad Hal Wing, the founder of Little Giant Ladders, said: "If you concentrate on building the company and not the person, you will fail. If you concentrate on building the person, the company will take care of itself."
That motto is still at Little Giant's core today.
In the early 1970s, Hal was a salesman living in Germany, forging a friendship with an inventor who created a ladder that Hal thought was a technological marvel. He took the idea back to the United States, perfecting it and pattening it before heading out on the road.
"He bought a pinto station wagon and he loaded it with ladders, and he went on the road upwards of 250 days a year just selling them out of that thing," Art recalled.
Art says the roadshow worked, and people quickly took note of their sturdy ladders and all they could do.
In 2002, Little Giant Ladders climbed to new heights by hitting television screens all over the country with an infomercial that often ran late at night and on weekend afternoons. It was a catchy ad that ran for 16 years and racked up sales of over a billion dollars in ladders sold.
Today, the Little Giant brand continues where it started, calling Utah home.
Company president and CEO Ryan Moss says the Beehive State is headquarters for good reason.
"We have great people here in the state of Utah. Honestly, that is one of the best blessings about Little Giant, is the wonderful people that we get to work with every single day," Moss said. "They're hardworking, they're smart, they're creative."
While Utah is the Little Giant premier factory, the company has facilities and warehouses all over the world, working to keep their standards and safety high. Globally, Little Giant employs several thousand people, together taking a small idea to a huge enterprise and stepping up the ladder of success with no end in sight
