GWS was founded in 1981 by George Waugh and commenced trading out of a small warehouse in Cork City. Initially the company imported from the UK and it's market for fasteners was retail outlets in the Munster region of Ireland.
Over time it diversified in to the Civil/Structural Engineering sector and the Engineering sector. In order to accommodate this growing market a purpose built warehouse was constructed in a green field site in Ballincollig, Co. Cork. A decision was also made at this stage in order to be able to give real value to it's customers that it would have to explore sourcing product in the Chinese market. Today GWS have excellent trading relations with some of the top Fastener Manufacturers in the far east. It has built up a team of people on the ground in the far east including Purchasing, Quality and Administrative to ensure that all products sourced are of the highest quality and competitively priced.
In the year 2000 GWS took a further giant step by entering the Electronics Industry sector specialising in providing all fastener products to the Rack Manufacturing Industry. This allowed GWS enter the global market with customers now based in the USA, France, Czech Republic, Russia, India and the far east. GWS is also an approved IBM supplier. GWS now have the resources to supply logistical services and inventory management systems on a global basis.
This phenomenal growth is attributed to the fact that we were one of the first companies to acknowledge the growing importance of the far east as a global manufacturing base and to establish a comprehensive business network within the far east to serve our customers.
GWS is also unique in a global market, in that it has retained it's commitment to delivering a personal service by employing dedicated and hard working staff.