Kirby Risk

About Kirby Risk

Kirby Risk sees nothing risky about helping harness a little electrical energy. The company, named after one of its co-founders, supplies electrical products (process automation products, drives and motors, lighting, fuses, wire, and cable) and services to the Midwestern US. The company operates through four business units comprising Electrical Supply, Service Center, Mechanical Solutions and Service, and Precision Machining. The Electrical Supply distribution unit handles more than 20,000 products from some 500 manufacturers, including GE, Thomas & Betts, and Rockwell Automation. Other operations include ARCO Electric Products (phase converters). CEO James Risk III owns the company that was founded in 1926. The company's Electrical Supply division stocks lighting and power instruments, while the Kirby Risk Service Center makes custom wiring harnesses, control panels, subassemblies, and kits for industrial customers. While Mechanical Solutions and Service is the repair end of the business, it also sells motors, power transmissions, and generators. Kirby Precision Machining offers precision machining using CNC (computer numerical control) technology. ARCO manufactures roto-phase converters, which are rotary-type generators (different from static phase converters), as well as power factor correction capacitors. The company's two units stock more than 35 supply locations throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio. Otto Keiffer and J. Kirby Risk founded the company as the Keiffer-Risk Battery Company in 1926 in an abandoned blacksmith shop in Lafayette, Indiana.