![]() ![]() In 2007, the ISO 9001:2008 company expanded capacity by opening Avalon Metal Fabrication in Owatonna under overall management by the Jones Metal Products management team. The present Jones Metal Products, located on 3rd Avenue in Mankato, is a full service contract metal fabrication company, supplying metal components while offering a “complete solutions” package of services that combine elements of design for manufacture and assembly, document control, precision fabrication, finishing and shipping. (They eventually dropped the roofing part of the business.) In 1952, Jones and Chuck Pennington founded a third company, Katolight, to sell generator sets, and the three companies operated together. When Cecil Jones, who purchased Kato Engineering in the late 1920s, needed a metal fabrication company to partner with his existing company, his wife, Mildred Jones, started Jones Sheet Metal and Roofing Company in 1942. High-powered females are a tradition in this primarily woman-owned company. “I’m confident I can do the job and am hoping it happens by 2012.” ![]() “When coming to Jones Metal Products in 2008, my goal was to reach the position of president and ceo,” Richards said. As director of sales and marketing at Jones Metal Products Inc., Richards has plans for a title change. She convinced the coach to get her off the bench by insisting, “I’m so much better than most of those boys.” She has since excelled in such diverse worlds as sports management and manufacturing. “My parents encouraged me to do whatever I wanted to do, so I don’t give much consideration to obstacles,” Richards said. Her parents’ advice-now that she took seriously. She didn’t let the coach’s response to her gender deter her. The chagrin was evident in the coach’s words when 10-year-old Sarah Richards was drafted to play baseball the first year Little League went co-ed. Photo by Kris Kathmann Mankato metal fabrication company with deep community roots growing through tough times.
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