About Us

HISTORY OF AKRON GASKET AND PACKING ENT.

On June 4th 1974, David A. Ray and his son Carter Ray were about to start the adventure of a lifetime. Prior to starting AGAPE, David had spent 21 years at a local belt/hose distributor working his way up to a sales position. David noticed that while they did a few gaskets for their belt and hose customers, it was only a small value added service. The company he worked for was not really set up to make gaskets and therefore were not very good at it.

David starting thinking that a fully dedicated gasket company would was what the industry needed and at that time there were very few companies around that focused mainly on gaskets and industrial packings.  So with that vision and drive David recruited his son Carter and together formed Akron Gasket And Packing Enterprises (AGAPE).

David was to handle all the sales and purchasing aspects of the newly formed company while Carter focused on the production side of the business.  So with one clicker press and some fabrication equipment squeezed into approx 1000sf Akron Gasket began to supply gaskets and packing to their small customer base.

In a short time the business had been so blessed that more space and personnel were needed.  In the first 25 years, AGAPE had moved 3 times in order to grow with the need for more people and room. In 2006, AGAPE moved to its current location which has 40,000+SF facility and 5+ acres to allow for future expansion.

In 2012 David A. Ray passed away but left a grand legacy with his sons Carter Ray (CEO), Craig Ray (President), and Matt Ray (Vice President) to carry on his vision.