Meet Adriana Osorio of Osorio Metals Supply in Humboldt Park

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriana Osorio.

Ruben Osorio is the founder and owner of Osorio Metal Supply, Inc. Ruben and his family emigrated from Mexico in 1978, locating the family in Chicago, Illinois. For the next 18 years, he worked at Tolona Pizza Company and started off in maintenance and worked his way up as the head Industrial Mechanic. When Tolona Pizza relocated to Ohio in 1991, Ruben knew this was his opportunity to branch off on his own and decided to stay in Chicago and follow the dream of owning his own business.

Initially, a one man operation, Ruben did his own metal design, fabrication and installation in his own garage. In June of 1992, as his business grew he purchased a larger facility in the north side of Chicago and named it Osorio Metal Supply Inc. In 1999, Osorio Metal Supply changed direction and became primarily a metal distribution shop. Today, OMS continues to operate as a locally owned metal works business, supplying various structural steel and iron products to contractors and fabricators.

As a second generation of metal suppliers, Ruben’s family has been influenced all their life by the metals business. They have left, as part of their legacy, their deep and abiding affinity for the appreciation of the metal industry, but also a life full of purpose and continuous emphasis on customer service and customer satisfaction. Ruben is hopeful that He can transfer that way of life to yet another generation and continue expanding Osorio Metals Supply, Inc. to the next level.

Angelica, Oscar and Adriana are part of the second generation of metal suppliers. Adriana, the youngest and the face of the company, is currently working on growing the business and taking it to the next level. Since she joined the business in 2015, she has made various upgrades. These include taking them from stone age practices to more efficient and tech savvy ways of doing business that have speed up processes. Her background includes attending Depaul University and graduating with a B.S in Business Management with a concentration in Entrepreneurship. She is currently attending a business program called 10k small businesses by Goldman Sachs that caters to business owners who are looking to take their business to greater heights. Her greatest source of motivation is continuing the legacy her father started 26 years ago.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Anyone who says owning a business is easy or that it is smooth sailing is either lying or crazy! Beginnings are always difficult and require a lot of bootstrapping. My father started the business by primarily installing fences throughout the city and it was difficult to keep a steady cash flow. Revenue took longer to receive as it was a longer process. It took quoting, building and Installing before you saw a payment. Not to mention, often times customers looked for any mistake to withhold a check. That is when my father steered the business into a different direction. He decided to supply the metal to fabricators that like him, needed metal during the fencing craze in the early 90’s.

In the late 90’s early 2000’s, we built a huge following which allowed us to establish a great customer base who have followed us throughout the years. We were successful for many years until the 2008 recession hit. Like many industries, ours was severely affected. Construction came to a halt and no one had the funds to build or much less install fences when most people lost their jobs. Since then growth has been steady up until two years ago when we experienced an influx of new customers that led to larger revenues.

Osorio Metals Supply – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We supply metal to people representing a broad range of industries. We have grocery store and restaurant owners coming in for stainless steel sheets for their kitchens, truck drivers seek us for sheet metal to repair their trucks, furniture designers needing material to build chairs and tables, and all kinds of awesome and artistic people walk in. However, most of our business primarily comes from fence fabricators.

Put simply, our warehouse hosts a healthy supply of raw metal for any metal fabricator enthusiast. From tubing, bars, channels, angles, beams to aluminum, stainless steel, welding supplies, door hardware and ornamental. Furthermore, we also have a fabrication department where we build custom work for anyone that needs a design to be built using metal. The sky is the limit and if its metal, we can pretty much build it.
I believe one of our competitive advantages is our speed. We run a fast paced retail environment where anyone can walk in the the door, place their order on the spot and within 20 min or so depending on how large the order is, we are loading up and giving them a head start to their work day. Furthermore, the thing I am most proud of is our customer service. I believe being a small family owned business has allowed us to create that warm and inviting one on one personal relationship with our customers. We know our customers very well and the same can be said about them knowing us. We often times get asked “hey how is your father doing or your mother”. I believe these key differences have set us apart, and in the long run have allowed us to build a great following. It’s such a special thing to know that we have created an environment, where we see the same faces almost every single day and that they have been coming to us since our inception. Furthermore, in most of our years doing business we have never had to invest in marketing. Word of mouth has been our greatest tool and we have our employees to thank for and our awesome customers.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Well, being that I am young and only joined the business three years ago, that moment has yet to come but hopefully soon will be realized. That moment will be realized when my siblings and I have managed to expand into a much bigger facility in a more exposed location where we are able to reach more customers and be able to create more jobs for the community. I would like to go from being a hidden gem to being Chicago’s go to place for all things metal!

For our father, who is an extraordinary and brilliant man and who has put everything into creating this business, I believe his moment was when as he was standing outside witnessing the craziness that goes on during our busy season, he says to me, “you know I didn’t think this small silly endeavor of mine would really take off, I didn’t think that it would be such a hit”. But it did because he managed to fill that need of supplying metal to people in such a crucial time when putting up metal fences around the city was starting to bloom. His timing was perfect! Furthermore, I believe knowing that he came from a small town of Jalisco, Mexico to this country of opportunity without knowing the language or culture and stepping across border lines with only so much as a Maria Cookie Box where he stuffed one single change of clothes and without having any resources he was actually able to create something of real value. There is definitely something to be said about immigrants and their ability to involve themselves in entrepreneurial activities. I believe they often have a stronger driving force than people that are of this country that allows them to become successful individuals that contribute to the economy of this country.

Contact Info:

• Address: 4515 W. Thomas st.
  Chicago, IL 60651
• Website: osoriometals.com
• Phone: (773)772-4060
• Email: contact@osoriometals.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Osorio-Metals-Supply-1758461207805139/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/osorio-metals-supply-chicago

Image Credit:
Cain Eden Camacho

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