Wedlake was founded in 1979 by Brian Wedlake Sr., with a portable welder in the back of a pick-up truck doing heavy and farm equipment repair after hours and on weekends. In 1983 many local companies were looking to Wedlake as a job shop to provide new fabricated metal parts and, in March of 1984, Brian Sr. left the comfort of his full-time job, and Wedlake Fabricating, Inc. was born.
A 6,000 sq. ft. building in Broken Arrow, OK was rented to begin building computer recording cabs and other related equipment for the Geophysical industry. As the oil bust occurred and the oil-related work quickly went away, we searched for other types of fabrication work to keep us busy.
During the next 5 years, Wedlake moved to an 8,000 square foot building in Tulsa and built up a very diverse group of customers in industries including railroad, trucking, oilfield, communications, computers, and the local Cummins/Onan dealer.
Over the next couple of years, Wedlake began to see the need on a regional scale for quality generator base tanks and enclosures. Fuel tanks and enclosures continually became a bigger part of the workload and we realized that we needed to make a commitment to the generator industry and focus on a Generator related product line.
In 1994 Wedlake moved to a 30,000 sq. ft. building and began phasing out the job shop work, turning our full focus towards building high-quality generator-related products on a national level.
Wedlake was recognized in 1999 and again in 2000 by Oklahoma’s Business Monthly as one of Tulsa’s Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies. Since that time Wedlake has continued to grow and expand its product line. Always working to have the most current designs in the industry, Wedlake works closely with organizations such as Underwriters Laboratories, the National Fire Protection Agency, the Steel Tank Institute, and the National Association of Trailer Manufacturers to help ensure that our products meet the latest regulations.
In November 2020, Wedlake was acquired by IES Infrastructure to become a sister company to their Freeman Enclosure Systems business unit and expand their enclosure customer reach. Shortly after, Wedlake made a sizeable capital improvement project of moving into a new 123,000-square-foot building to accommodate new exponential growth opportunities.