HISTORY

1979	Frank Venegas Jr. wins the Cadillac Coupe deVille raffle at the Livingston county home builders benefit Ideal Steel & Builders Supplies Inc. opens in Whitmore Lake, Michigan
1980	Ideal diversifies its first business - adding wood burning stoves to its product line
1983	Ideal enters the construction industry, providing self perform services for the commercial sector. First job was the expansion of a donut shop in Livingston County
1986	Whitmore Steel is founded to install Ideal Steel’s fabricated steel.
1989	Ideal begins partnership with The State of Michigan Work Pass Program, hiring inmates upon release from prison
1990	First Ideal company certified by the Michigan Minority Business Development Corporation (MMBDC)
1991	Ideal Shield installs its first Guardrail System throughout the entire Chrysler Jefferson North Plant
1992	First two patents for the Guardrail System are awarded
1993	Ideal Shield is one of Plant Engineering’s Product of the Year Finalist and named Michigan Product of the Year
1995	Ideal receives the Ford Motor Company Q1 Award
1996	Frank Venegas, Jr. helps found GRACE, an at risk youth program in Southwest Detroit, designed to transition youths from gang life to work life. Now known as the Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation (DHDC) Ideal Shield starts production in Detroit and the Hispanic Manufacturing Center opens in Southwest Detroit
1997	Ideal Group buys its first automated CNC Fabrication equipment and implements 3D Modeling
1998	Ideal Contracting, LLC, a partnership between Frank Venegas, Jr. and Barton Malow, is formed to create a new general contracting firm.
1999	Ideal Steel wins the structural and miscellaneous steel contract for Comerica Park
2000	The Ideal Group moves to its new headquarters in Southwest Detroit on the grounds of the old Cadillac Plant Frank Venegas, Jr. enters a trade partnership with Hagiawara Electric forming Ideal Technologies, LLC
2001	Ideal Setech moves to Howell, Michigan
2003	Ideal Shield fabricates all handrail at Ford Field Ideal Group receives its first of seven General Motors Global Supplier of Year Awards Michigan Manufacturers Association names Ideal Shield Manufacturer of the Year
2005	NMSDC and MMBDC name Ideal Group as its 2004 MBE Supplier of Year, Class IV Frank & Loren Venegas parter with Setech USA to form Ideal Setech. Ideal Contracting receives the General Motors NAIAS and the DBIA awards for Design Build Excellence at GM V6 Flint Assembly
2007	Ideal Setech Share-The-Spare, LLC’s new division, Redistribution Center (RDC), founded. RDC redistributes excess MRO material among customer locations Ideal Setech Share-The-Spare named Livingston County’s Innovation Company of the Year
2008	Ideal Surplus Sales launches, specializing in selling excess industrial inventory on the open market Ideal Setech opens warehouses in Livonia, MI and Toledo, OH
2009	Ideal Group celebrates it’s 30th year in business in December