The Mississippi Welders Supply Company that you see today was born in 1939 in Mondovi, Wisconsin. From this original location, a network of dedicated Driver-Salesmen served customers in southeastern Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and northeastern Iowa. With so much territory to cover, it eventually made sense to add another location and the company was expanded to include a Winona, MN store in 1966. The Winona location serves as the company headquarters and includes the central warehouse, gas filling plant and main office, in addition to a 2,000 square foot retail store. In the summer of 1973, Don Peterson bought the company with two partners. He and Donna moved their family to Winona to take the helm of MWS. Don ended up buying out both partners, and under his leadership, stores were added in Rochester, MN, Red Wing, MN and La Crosse, WI. The Driver-Salesmen were then able to cover an even broader territory and an expanding network of local stock points was also implemented. In the fall of 1991, the Peterson's oldest son Brad joined the company. Brad had worked in the business while in high school and college, but had taken 4 years to get his degree, and another 8 in the US Navy, serving as a nuclear-trained surface warfare officer. Under his leadership, the MWS tradition of growth and expansion not only continued, but accelerated. A period of rapid growth and expansion followed in 1992. Having outgrown its original building in Winona, the store and warehouse were moved to the current location. The Rochester store moved to its current location in 1993 with additional warehouse space added in 2001 to better serve customers in that region. La Crosse and Red Wing branches were also bursting at the seams and followed suit. The La Crosse store moved to its current address in 1997. In 1999, a new building was constructed to house the Red Wing store. Later that year, the decision was made to open a brand new store in Decorah, IA due to customer demand in our southern t. MWS distributes premier products|in the following categories: ¿Industrial gas ¿Rare and specialty gas ¿Cryogenic liquid ¿Medical gas ¿Beverage CO2|nitrogen and nitrogen/CO2 blends ¿Propane ¿Welding equipment ¿Cutting equipment ¿Filler metals ¿Power tools ¿Abrasives ¿PPE ¿Fire extinguishers|We also provide a wide range of professional services offering you ways to enhance your productivity: ¿Complete fire protection service and training ¿Factory trained machine service technicians ¿Certified welding inspectors ¿Cryogenic engineering ¿Value engineering ¿Vending machine experts ¿Beverage CO2|nitrogen and nitrogen/CO2 service