A worker in El Salvador holds up an ISECO box containing a pair of safety boots donated by the company to help “needy people” in a number of countries. Through the years ISECO has sent boots and shoes to Columbia, Bolivia, Africa, Romania, Bosnia, as well as to native peoples in Canada.

An early innovation by ISECO was using vans to provide mobile stores, the first being a trailer in 1946. There are now 30 especially designed vans on the road across Canada, each carrying safety products such as gloves, safety glasses, ear plugs, and work clothing as well as up to 1,000 to 1,200 pairs of shoes in about 75 styles.

SAFETY REGULATIONS were virtually nonexistent in 1938 when George Munnings opened a business to sell safety equipment. More than six decades later, ISECO – letters to represent “Industrial Safety Equipment Co. Ltd.” – is still family owned and the largest company of its kind in Canada. It has 20 stores and a fleet of more than 30 vehicles serving thousands of customers across the nation.

George’s first shop in Etobicoke sold leggings, coats, first aid kits, and head, eye, and ear protective devices. Within a year, his father and two brothers joined the company which moved to Toronto in 1941, back to Etobicoke in 1945, and in 1990, settled in a new head office and modern plant in Mississauga.

Today’s president Garry Munnings attributes ISECO’s growth to listening to the needs of customers and being innovative in developing safety gear for workers in the steel, forestry, electrical, automotive, railway, lumber, and construction industries, and more recently for those in the hospital and hospitality services.

In 1947, for instance, ISECO added safety boots to their product line by signing a contract with the Tillsonburg Shoe Company. That year, brother Ted suggested ISECO’s products be taken on the road. The first travelling unit was a trailer towed by his own car and, by 1959, six vehicles were in use.

ISECO continued to expand, establishing a boot and shoe company at Detroit in 1955, and by carrying on research that has resulted in making a number of specialized products such as static dissipating soled shoes for workers in the aircraft and computer industries where a static shock could purge valuable files, and puncture-proof metatarsal guard ballistic nylon boots for police force riot squads. ISECO also signed contracts with manufacturers of specialized equipment, such as non-slip footwear for the food service industry.

With the passing of numerous safety regulations in the mid-1960s, Bob Munnings, who became president in 1971, worked closely with the Canadian Standards Association in developing safety codes for footwear and other accessories.

Five years later, the company ventured into western Canada when Buchanan Safety in Edmonton was acquired and became its western headquarters. In 1979, Capital Safety at Regina was added and, in 1980, ISECO entered the Maritimes, acquiring the Palmer-McClellan Company at Fredericton, New Brunswick, which, in addition to selling and distributing safety shoes and clothing, also manufactured the highly regarded Moosehead brand name that has been retained. In 1986 ISECO also acquired Chaussures Securité Lamontagne in Montreal to make it a regional head office in Quebec.

To date, three generations of the Munnings family have been the driving force behind the success of ISECO. Following George as president was his younger brother Bob and now George’s son, Garry. Randy (Bob’s son) is the General Manager, Devin (Garry’s son) is National Sales Manager/Director of Marketing, and Kim (Garry’s daughter) is the Human Relations Manager. Garry is emphatic, however, that the dedication of employees coupled with listening to customer needs and meeting those needs with quality products at fair prices are the reasons, along with God’s help, ISECO has continued to “thrive and grow for six decades.”