Gulf South Machine History

In 1949, the Holak family immigrated to the United States. They had lost everything worldly, including their freedom in Nazi work camps during WW2. They did not, however, lose their spirit and the drive to succeed in this new land of freedom and opportunity. They were sponsored by a church in Independence, Louisiana and went to work as share crop farmers for a family farm there. 

The entire Holak family worked at share cropping and some of the children eventually left the farm, spreading out across the country, in an effort to educate and train themselves. Metchislav trained in industry and manufacturing, Walerij graduated college in Education, and Stanislav graduated as an Electronic Engineer working in advanced electronics for the military. 

Their dedication and work ethics are deeply ingrained, so when they reunited back in Tangipahoa Parish and started Gulf South Machine, Inc. in 1969, they were prepared for the challenges ahead.

Mike (Metchislav) and Larry (Walerij) were successful at crafting GSM initially as a machine tool rebuilder while working other full-time jobs.  Working at night, they used the profits from selling rebuilt machines, to manufacture products using their own unsold machines. They manufactured products for customers and then sold these, fully tooled, machines, to those customers so they could manufacture these same parts for themselves. The business grew.

In 1974, they purchased a new “cutting edge” Computerized Manufacturing Center from Lodge and Shipley in Cincinnati, Ohio. It is believed to be the first Computer Controlled machine tool sold in the state of Louisiana.  Walerij (Larry) taught himself to program and run the machine, and Metchislav (Mike) learned to tool it.  For the highly technical electronic maintenance they enlisted their brother Stanislav’s (Stan’s) help. He trained at General Electric, and Lodge and Shipley and soon joined the business using his expertise. This new equipment gave Gulf South Machine a big advantage over other machine shops. The quality was better, the production was many times faster, and the company prospered.

Fast forward to today, GSM operates over 50 of these Computer-Controlled Machine Tools in two states with state-of-the-art equipment combined with old fashioned hard work, honesty, and work ethics.

After many years of our customers moving to offshore manufacturing in China, we took on the challenge and achieved in becoming an ISO certified company, in an effort to gain opportunities in all world markets. 

Our Quality Management System is certified to the ISO 9001:2015 standard which also presented GSM in being the recipient of the 2017 Small Manufacturers Award from the Louisiana Economic Development Dept. (MEPOL).

GSM has a diverse, adaptable workforce with decades of experienced, talented, and dedicated men and women.