Our Story
Bailey-Parks Urethane’s founder, (Thomas) Joe Bailey, came from humble beginnings but went on to establish the number one source of urethane products in the U.S. From his early career selling and repairing car tires, he moved on to providing urethane tires for the Fairmont Railway Motor Company’s railroad service cars. This product was revolutionary, taking these service vehicles from daily tire changes to having an unlimited tire life using urethane.
In 1969, the company’s first shop was purchased in Memphis; over the years, Bailey Parks has had interests in oil companies, paneling, plywood, composite roofing, and pre-finished molding. The company has since further diversified its products and now serves the grain, food processing, and mining industries.
Bailey-Parks is led today by the founder’s son, Scott Bailey. The company’s reach is now worldwide making urethane products that are used in hundreds of manufacturing processes across the globe.
Our History
Founded by the family patriarch Thomas Joe Bailey and located just a few blocks from the mighty Mississippi River, Bailey-Parks Urethane, Inc. has been a privately owned family business since 1969. We incorporated in 1970 and began manufacturing press-on tires for the Fairmont Railway Motor Company in Memphis. Failing rubber tires made their railroad service equipment operable for only a few hours each day. Bailey-Parks’ urethane tires granted them unlimited operating time.
Soon after, Bailey-Parks began recovering industrial rollers and industrial wheels used in the manufacturing of housing products such as panelling, plywood, composite roofing and pre-finished molding. An in-house stripping and grinding setup was added to the Bailey-Parks operation, as well as a machine shop.
Eventually, the machine shop led to a metal fabricating department, which led to building custom equipment. Bailey-Parks then expanded into a full line of forklift wheels, press-on tires and glue and glycerin rollers.
Committed to continued growth, Bailey-Parks began making custom urethane parts for automotive industry assembly plants. From there, the company diversified into serving the grain, food processing and mining industries.
Today, Bailey-Parks makes urethane products that are used in hundreds of manufacturing processes around the world. And, with very few exceptions, we still make all of our molds, tooling and custom machines in house at our plant in Memphis.