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Our Company History

For more than 75 years, the Ryer family has been involved with the wire rope cable sales and splicing business. Whitey Ryer started in the wire rope cable industry in 1938 while employed with Pacific Wire Rope in Los Angeles. He then relocated his family to the San Francisco Bay Area to work for American Steel and Wire, then Columbia Steel and finally U.S. Steel. While employed at U.S. Steel, Whitey mastered wire rope cable splicing. He spliced cables in a wide variety of projects for U.S. Steel including cable cars, amusement parks (DisneyLand, Great America, Magic Mountain, Heavenly Valley Ski Resorts), canneries, oil wells, dams, ski lifts, and other trams. By the late forties, U.S Steel began to phase out their wire rope cable installation and splicing practice.

While Whitey continued working U.S. Steel, he founded an independent splicing business, W.A. Ryer and Sons in 1949. His two sons, Will and Richard, thus began an extended wire rope cable splicing apprenticeship with their father. Whitey's eldest son, Will, initially worked part-time in the business. By the late seventies, Will began to branch out on his own by serving clients who utilized conveyor wire rope cable. Whitey and Richard continued to serve clients mainly in the ski and tram industries. Whitey retired in 1977 and Will later formed a separate company, Will Ryer & Son, Inc. in 1980. 

By the mid-eighties, Will Ryer & Son, established itself as a leading expert in wire rope cable sales and splicing for conveyor systems. In 1986, we built a modern sales, service and distribution center in the San Francisco Bay Area. By the early nineties, we began exporting our products and expertise to clients internationally including customers in Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Indonesia, Chile, Puerto Rico and others in Asia and South America. In 2021, our company is still family owned and operated.

Company History Will Ryer & Son, Inc. Wire Rope Sales and Splicing

The Ryer Family featured in

Wire Rope News Magazine in 1991

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