Global Finishing Solutions® (GFS) is a vertical manufacturer, dedicated to developing high-quality paint booths and finishing environments for a wide variety of industries — including aerospace, automotive refinish and industrial businesses. GFS strives to meet the unique needs of every customer across the globe with pre-engineered and custom solutions for paint prep, application, curing and storage.
GFS’ Quality Management System is certified to ISO 9001:2015 by Smithers Quality Assessments, demonstrating GFS’ unwavering commitment to quality and dedication to delivering best-in-class products that are trusted by our customers.
Headquartered in Osseo, Wisconsin, GFS has an extensive history of providing the aerospace, automotive refinish and industrial finishing industries with exceptional equipment and services, helping businesses maximize productivity and achieve flawless finishes.
At GFS, we pride ourselves on being the leader in the finishing industry. Our continued success is made possible by our talented, hardworking employees. We aim to provide our employees with every opportunity to make an impact on the company. This is especially true for a company of our size and culture. Although a large, growing business — with more than 300 employees — our heart is rooted in small-town, homegrown values. To continue growing our business, we welcome you to join the GFS family.
We are focused on our family of exceptional employees. With a people-first approach and limitless opportunities, our people have every chance to flourish.
Never forgetting that business decisions impact people's lives, we infuse fairness and professionalism into all that we do.
Side by side, striving for shared goals, we align with people who share our core values and exceed our expertise.
We abide by unwavering standards of ethics and walk-the-talk principals. Our corporate culture is so steeped in character, it holds up even when the lights are off.
With keen eyes and vast resources, we constantly think ahead to be better and go farther for long-term success.
Global Finishing Solutions® (GFS) is proud to be represented by the finest distribution network in the paint booth and finishing equipment industry. Our experienced, dedicated distributors span throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and around the world. This expansive distribution network allows us the ability to provide consulting, training, installation, service, maintenance and parts and filters support on a local level to all of our customers.
GFS is a family-owned and operated company, focused on our family of exceptional employees. This “people first” approach has always led our success. With this foundation and limitless opportunities, our people have every chance to flourish.
Our commitment to “people first” works from the inside out. Never forgetting that business decisions impact people’s lives, we infuse fairness and professionalism into all that we do. The dignity and courtesy we extend to our family of employees carries on to our customers, business associates and vendors.
Side by side, striving for shared goals — we believe that’s how the best work gets done, and that’s why we treat business relationships as true partnerships. We align with people who share our core values and exceed our expertise. Working together, we all succeed.
We’ve built a corporate culture so steeped in character, it holds up even when the lights are off. In our core, we abide by unwavering standards of ethics and walk-the-talk principles. This is more than corporate speak; our integrity — who we are when the lights are off — is everything.
We are constantly planning, innovating and improving. We invest and reinvest to ensure the health and longevity of our company. With keen eyes and vast resources, we constantly think ahead to be better and go farther for long-term success.
A big part of accounting is ensuring the integrity of our processes and systems. Making sure we’re compliant with accounting principles and covering our customers, all while seeing the big picture for the company. I’m always open and honest, and I try to be professional about it. It’s not always the answer you want to hear, but I’m always honest.
Another part is giving credit where credit is due. I play a role, but it is our team as a whole that does amazing work. When you make a mistake, you own it and put steps in place to make sure it doesn’t happen again. We hold each other accountable and follow through on commitments.
I started working on the paint line at DeVilbiss while I went to school. When they merged with Blowtherm, I was hired as an engineer. Since the Team Blowtherm merger with JBI that created Global Finishing Solutions, I am now the primary mechanical engineer for our refinish product line. I work from our Barrie office in Ontario, so I communicate daily with our design, engineering and refinish sales departments. Communication is key, and the other big factor is trust. Although there have been many changes and mergers through the years, what has kept me with GFS is that it is a company that practices what it preaches in terms of their core values. Leadership means what they say, and I have seen them be flexible with people’s hours. They’re there for people when they’re sick or have children who are sick; that’s the big difference.
You can go just about anywhere to find a job that is mentally stimulating, but the other side of that is knowing the company will be there for you when you need it.
Over the past six years, I have moved up from an Assembler on the Oven Line to a Machine Operator, and most recently, a Brake Press Operator. When production was slow one day this year, our lead, Gary, asked for volunteers to help a neighboring company, Titan Air. We were working four, nine-hour days, with four hours on Fridays, whereas Titan employees were working five, 10-hour days, plus Saturdays — you could say they were pretty busy. I volunteered, and so did my coworker, Sam. We helped them in the assembly of Air Make-Up Units (AMUs). Every so often, some of our welders went over to help out as well. Not only was it cool to see other processes and ways of doing things, it was cool to see how the AMUs we use on our own paint booths get made. I’m glad we were able to help out another company, and they were more than accommodating. They did an excellent job at making us feel important and included. They even invited us to their company golf outing and gave us Titan Air baseball caps for helping out.
“You don’t stay at a job for almost 30 years if you don’t like the people you work with — I love them like family!”
I’ve been with GFS for 14 years. I started at GFS’ facility in Mexico and worked there for six years. When we got notified that the Mexico facility was shutting down, they offered jobs for both me and my husband at GFS’ headquarters in Osseo, Wisconsin. At that time, crime was starting to get really bad in Mexico, so my husband and I took the opportunity for our family and careers. We knew that our girls would grow up in a safe environment in Osseo. We also knew that GFS is a good company, and we liked the people. I knew most of the people in Osseo because I worked with them on a daily basis as the production scheduler for our automotive refinish business unit.
The job I took was in the industrial sales department. It was a change, learning to use our system in a different way and selling a different product line. They were really patient with me, and treated me with respect, explaining new things to me as many times as needed. The team is great, and I love working with them. My transition was really smooth, and my daughters adjusted really quickly because they were so young.
Growing up, I was always the kid in the neighborhood that others would come to when their bike broke. I am a carbon copy of my dad — not quite Tim the Tool Man, but if it’s broken, I can fix it.
Improvement is making things better, but it can also increase workload, at least temporarily. I see that here at GFS. Everything gets done, but someone has to do the work. A lot of that falls on our maintenance department. We recently completed all of the wiring for our intercom system. We installed 50 speakers on the manufacturing floor and in the storm shelter rooms. It’s a great improvement, but we had to put a lot of time and effort into it.
Before coming to GFS, I worked on a lot of different types of equipment, but never with steel manufacturing equipment, such as turrets and press brakes. Eight years ago, I never imagined I’d be playing an electrician at work, but it was a great learning experience. It was a whole new way of doing things, and it has helped at home for sure.
