Inc. magazine announced last week that Kingfisher-based Neo-Insulation is No. 2005 on its annual Inc. 5000 list, which ranks the nation’s fastest-growing private companies.

The list represents a unique look at the most successful companies within the American economy’s most dynamic segment–its independent small businesses, the announcement said.

Intuit, Zappos, Under Armour, Microsoft, Patagonia, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees on the Inc. 5000.

While serving primarily the energy industry, NeoInsulation provides custom insulation solutions to a range of industries across the U.S .and internationally – from major U.S. oil and gas producers to customers in the commercial and industrial, food processing, pulp and paper, agricultural, water treatment and delivery, and HVAC industries.

The company has insulated over 3,000 facilities all across North America (including Alaska and Canada) over the last seven years.

“I am humbled and honored by the work that our entire team at NeoInsulation has done to achieve this prestigious award,” CEO and owner Justin Mecklenburg said.

“This would not have been possible without the dedication and commitment from all of our employees.

“Their faith in our vision as a company is truly inspiring.”

Mecklenburg said the seasonal nature of his business meant the industry downturn and COVID-19 shutdown landed during NeoInsulation’s slow period – the warmer months of the year.

“Had the lockdown occurred in the winter it could have had a much more detrimental effect on our business,” he said.

Even so, once the pandemic hit, the company found a way to keep its people working while also providing a needed product – fabric masks.

“We have a large ‘cut and sew’ operation in Oklahoma City, so we already had the sewing machines and experienced labor,” he said. “We transitioned some of our product lines to start manufacturing filtered face masks.”

The step also allowed the business to qualify as essential so that it could continue operating through the shutdown period.

“That allowed us to keep about 25-30 people in our manufacturing facility employed full time through the pandemic,” Mecklenburg said. “It also really felt good to be able to provide law enforcement agencies, city employees, businesses, churches, family and friends with quality filtered, reusable face masks that were made right here in Oklahoma.”

The company produced about 30,000 masks during peak production and still continues to make “a small amount,” he said.

Among other uses, the company’s masks were offered to the city of Kingfisher at a reduced rate, which allowed the city to hand out several thousand free masks at the start of the pandemic.

“We are a faith-based company and we refuse to operate out of fear, but rather we operate out of faith, so, we have taken this downtime to get better – making improvements in our manufacturing process, tightening up policies and procedures, becoming more efficient, developing close relationships with our key customers and suppliers, etc.

“We fully expect our busy season (September - March) to produce solid results. I can’t predict what oil prices will do, but I can safely predict that it is going to get cold soon and oil and gas companies will need their facilities insulated to keep from freezing.”

Not only have the companies on the 2020 Inc. 5000 been very competitive within their markets, but the list as a whole shows staggering growth compared with prior lists, the magazine said.

The 2020 Inc. 5000 achieved a three-year average growth of over 500 percent, and a median rate of 165 percent.

The Inc. 5000’s aggregate revenue was $209 billion in 2019, accounting for over 1 million jobs over the past three years.

Complete results of the Inc. 5000, including company profiles and an interactive database that can be sorted by industry, region, and other criteria, can be found at www.inc.com/ inc5000.

“The companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 come from nearly every realm of business,” says Inc. editor-in-chief Scott Omelianuk. “From health and software to media and hospitality, the 2020 list proves that no matter the sector, incredible growth is based on the foundations of tenacity and opportunism.”

The annual Inc. 5000 event honoring the companies on the list will be held virtually from October 23 to 27.