About Us

Sligo Steel was founded on the St. Louis riverfront by two Irish immigrants in 1834 under the name Sligo Iron Store and was the first steel distributor west of the Mississippi. At the time, St. Louis was undergoing rapid expansion as the city was the major hub for goods and travelers heading to the western territories. Sligo grew quickly through the middle 1800’s and extended their operations to include stables for their delivery horses and carriages, an iron foundry fifty miles south of the city, a national distribution catalogue, a fabrication and machining facility, and even a sporting goods factory. Fueled by a labor force comprised mostly of Irish immigrants, Sligo found itself to be the economic and cultural center of St. Louis’s first large immigrant neighborhood; the “Kelly Patch”.

Throughout the twentieth century as the US steel market grew, Sligo consolidated its structure to focus on the retail and wholesale of steel goods to local dealers and end users. In 1997, Sligo was purchased by Omega Steel (a national pipe and tube distributor based in St. Louis). In 2007, after one hundred seventy-three years of operating on the St. Louis riverfront, the Sligo warehouse was purchased by Pinnacle Entertainment for the construction of Lumiere Casino, and Sligo moved its operations to Illinois.

Today Sligo operates out of Decatur, IL and caters to walk-in customers, fabricators, constructors, machine shops, dealers, and the agricultural industry. With its fleet of delivery flatbeds, Sligo is able to offer a myriad of products and services.