Business celebrates 90th anniversary

Sussex County’s primary warehouse fabricator erector, R.S. Phillips Steel of Vernon, is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year.

The four-generation family-owned business has been a staple of the county’s infrastructure services for nearly a century, shifting and changing its focus to occupy whatever niche is required to continue growing and serving its customers.

Adaptability is one of the business’s greatest strengths and has proven so throughout its storied history.

“Anybody that’s running the same business model year after year is not going to succeed,” co-owner Neil Phillips said in an interview.

He and his twin brother, Scott, have been running the company since 2011. They took over from their father, Steven, and uncle Reginald, who were the third generation of the Phillips family to run it.

Neil is the partner in charge of operations while Scott is the partner in charge of administration.

They share the responsibility of managing a five-acre ecosystem of metal. The material is necessary in each step of the many services that R.S. Phillips Steel provides.

As workers march throughout the lot, the crunching sounds of gravel under their boots bounce off the steel.

Steel is present in every aspect of the business’s operations, but Scott said it wasn’t always like this.

Started with greenhouses

The business began with his great-grandfather Reginald Stewart Phillips, who began selling commercial and residential greenhouses under the name R.S. Phillips Co. in 1934.

He began the tradition of involving the family in the business with his son, Amos, who worked with his father both before and after he served in the Korean War in 1951.

Amos and his wife, Julia, purchased the business from his father’s estate after his death in 1963. They began the focus on steel.

In 1968, the greenhouse business was sold, and Amos tore down the New Jersey Zinc Co.’s Sterling Hill Mill in Ogdensburg, selling leftover steel from the mill as salvage.

During those early days, he invested his time and money in a handful of projects while searching for the best and most consistent.

Julia was able to run and manage the business during this time, establishing several foundational elements that have informed how things were run for decades.

Scott emphasized the importance of four generations of women, including Julia, have been in the foundation and identity of the business. The business owes much of its success to these women, who worked and continue to work tirelessly, he said.

“Julia was a major part of the business,” he noted.

Her work as a tireless and supportive businesswoman gave Amos the flexibility and versatility to be so risk-tolerant.

Amos used his intuition to steer the business in new directions. This soon would become a Phillips family staple.

“Each generation took the roadmap of the previous one and expanded on it,” Scott said.

Modern version

Amos and Julia’s sons, Steven and Reginald, purchased the business from their parents in 1980, laying the foundation for what R.S. Phillips Steel looks like today.

They converted the business to a full-fledged steel service, foregoing salvaged metal and expanding the range of services and personnel.

“We couldn’t use rusty steel,” Steven said, talking about the changes he and his brother had to make.

Steven and Reginald helmed the business as they got married, settled down and started families.

As the business expanded, the same was true for the growing number of employees they hired.

The next decades of expansion were a product of many factors; one of the main ones was consideration of the growing needs of both the Phillips family and their staff, Steven said.

They no longer were providing for just themselves; they had to consider how to create a sustainable business for those who made their expansion and success possible.

“When Reg and I were going through the gauntlet, all the people that came with us were going through the same thing. It forced the business to grow,” Steven said. “We had to grow to keep up with what all our people needed plus what we needed.”

Steven talked about this “learning experience” and how the family always made securing the needs of those who worked with them a priority.

Extended family

The Phillips family sees their personnel as extended family, not just employees.

Scott said many of the men who taught him the skills and adaptability necessary to run the business when he was a teenager and young man now work with him, and the bonds they forged during decades remain strong.

Neil spoke about similar experiences, saying, “We worked in the trenches with these guys, and I think it developed a certain level of respect towards our staff.”

He spoke about the essential “give and take” nature of his relationship with the staff, emphasizing how important it is to be flexible and understanding with those who provide value and vital services to the business. “I think it goes a long way.”

Steven agreed, saying the environment that Scott and Neil grew up in instilled in them values of ingenuity and perseverance. “It’s a fire that’s inside of them to do what they’ve got to do.”

A combination of cohesiveness, flexibility and what Scott calls “risk tolerance” has allowed R.S. Phillips Steel to continue adapting and thriving as the No. 1 provider for all steel-related needs in the tristate area.

Each generation brought new changes and expertise, which kept the business in a position to constantly expand and thrive. This flexibility has given the business the ability to provide any service in the steel-processing industry.

“What we do here is unique,” Scott said about the sheer variety of services the business provides. “We warehouse, fabricate and erect.”

All R.S. Phillips Steel staff members are united in their drive to “get the job done, whatever it is,” Scott said.

They’ve worked on projects ranging from Industry Kitchen + Bar in Sparta to the Northern New Jersey Veterans Memorial Cemetery.

In Steven’s words: “Over, under or through.” It’s a common motto at R.S. Phillips, and it emphasizes the business’s collective goal to finish whatever job it takes on with the highest quality, no matter what.

The 90-year milestone is very important to each member of the Phillips family involved in the business. They each see it as reflective of decades of service to their community.

Steven enjoys seeing the visible impact of his work when he travels throughout the county and hearing about the work done by his sons.

He is proud of what they’ve been able to accomplish and is glad that his family is filling a vital niche.

“We’ve supplied steel to the county: residents, farmers, business owners, house builders, all along the way. And as things changed and things modernized, we were there for them.”