With 75 years in business, Miller Products & Supply has served the building needs of Dickinson County, the Upper Peninsula and bordering Wisconsin counties. That has grown over the decades to extend further into the Midwest.

Miller Products & Supply was started in 1950 by Buck Miller. In the beginning, the business was near downtown Iron Mountain and supplied coal and petroleum products along with producing concrete blocks. The company eventually transitioned solely to concrete blocks.

Miller Products & Supply was purchased by Bob Fayas in 1983. He, along with his brothers, were involved in excavation and ready-mix concrete. Under Fayas, Miller Products & Supply would transition from just masonry supply to all things concrete construction, with the exception of the concrete itself.

Bob Fayas’ son, Ryan, took an interest in the family business early on, starting to help wherever and whenever he could at age 12. He would eventually do just about every job the company has.

ONE OF THE steel rebar “cages” that Miller Products & Supply produces in Iron Mountain and ships all over the Midwest to reinforce concrete piers in the electric industry. (Submitted photo)

After graduating from Kingsford High School in 1998, Fayas attended Michigan Technological University on an ROTC scholarship. Even though he knew he was going to be an army officer, he studied civil engineering and would come back to help at Miller Products & Supply as much as he possible.

After college, Fayas served as an intelligence officer and was deployed to Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and South America. After leaving the Army, Fayas spent two years with the Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C.

Missing the U.P., Fayas returned in 2012 and would eventually become president of Miller Products & Supply.

When demand for concrete blocks dropped off significantly due to many factors — many masons retired, few entered the trade and a move to other construction methods — Miller Products & Supply stopped manufacturing concrete blocks in 2013.

Now the largest portion of the business is rebar for concrete. Rebar — or reinforcing bar — significantly strengthens concrete by increasing its tensile strength, which is concrete’s weakness. This makes concrete more resistant to cracking, breaking and other failures under stress, especially tension.

MILLER PRODUCTS & SUPPLY is at 1801 N. Stephenson Ave. in Iron Mountain.

Miller Products & Supply now is the largest supplier of rebar north of Milwaukee, Ryan Fayas said.

The business has made a name in providing rebar packages to contractors for large commercial and industrial construction. The rebar is all precut, bent and in some cases assembled at the Iron Mountain facility, then trucked to the job site and installed ahead of the concrete pours.

Ryan Fayas said the reason they are in rebar is in part due to two area contractors.

“Special thanks goes out to MBM Construction of Kingsford. They gave us the initial, ‘Here you go, we will help you out,'” Fayas said. “Then M.J. Electric came along right after and said, ‘We’ll try to help you — here is a giant job.'”

Fayas describes his customer base as diverse, ranging from walk-ins who needs to buy a stick of rebar for tomato plant stakes, a homeowner looking to install stone on their home, local concrete and masonry contractors and those who work all over the region and beyond.

Apart from rebar, Miller Products & Supply still carries concrete blocks and other legacy products. Ryan Fayas said they are among the Upper Peninsula’s largest suppliers of galvanized and plastic culverts, landscape and road fabrics and erosion control systems.

Miller Products & Supply also offers stone and paver bricks.

One of the biggest challenges he faces is finding enough qualified people. Miller Products & Supply currently employs 35 but Fayas said he needs 42 to be fully staffed.

Fayas credits those employees for Miller Products & Supply’s success.

“The people who work here are what makes the company,” Ryan Fayas said. “It is not the equipment, not the product on the shelf. It is the people doing the work.”

The retail store at Miller Products & Supply is open 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday at 1801 N. Stephenson Ave.