Tanner, Alabama-based Redline Steel was the company that was invited to represent the state at the recent “Made in America Product Showcase” held at the White House on July 15. The company was founded in 2015 by Colin Wayne Erwin, described breathlessly by Forbes magazine in January last year as “a 28-year-old millionaire from Huntsville, Alabama and the CEO of Redline Steel. He is a high-school dropout and military combat veteran who was injured by an enemy rocket attack in Afghanistan. He is also a former male fitness cover model, social media savant, and he has built a multi-million-dollar industrial manufacturing business in only 18 months. Did I mention he is on his third Ferrari?”
Forbes reported then that the company, the founder of which prefers to be called Colin Wayne, “[by] any definition ... has been a rapid success. Now only 18 months in operation, Redline has done over $11 million in revenue. Demand for his product has him on back order, and Redline is on track to do $30 million in 2018.”
While Redline Steel’s Facebook and Twitter feeds are full of glowing customer reviews, as of this writing, the most recent of those date back to 2018. Perhaps the company is just too busy to update those specific sites; its Instagram is full of more recent photos, including a selfie Wayne took with Donald Trump yesterday.
But perhaps the company’s B- rating from the Better Business Bureau, with which it is not accredited, is more illuminating of problems that probably did not come up during the selfie session at the White House. The BBB page for the company notes that it “has a pattern of complaints concerning late delivery of products and problems contacting customer service,” a pattern that had caused the bureau to issue a public alert regarding Redline at the end of 2017.
Local media began reporting at the end of last year about “irate” customers posting online and contacting the BBB about the problems they were having with Redline. In February, Huntsville TV station WHNT reported, “Since WHNT News 19 began covering this story in December, we've contacted Redline Steel several times, in hopes of hearing what they've been doing to address complaints. This week, management agreed to their first on-camera interview with WHNT News 19 on the subject. After agreeing to reschedule from Thursday to Friday, we went to the plant and were told the owner was sick, nobody from the company would go on camera, and we weren't allowed access to the factory floor.”
In March, the station followed up: “This week, WHNT News 19 contacted Redline Steel owners asking for comment. They told us, 'we're not doing interviews, you're not allowed in, you can talk with our attorney.'” Currently, Redline Steel’s Better Business Bureau profile lists 1,107 complaints, the latest filed on June 22.
Meanwhile, Huntsville ABC TV affiliate WAAY reported on July 12 that Redline’s facility in Tanner has been accused of having unsafe work conditions:
The letter from Alabama's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, was sent to WAAY 31 by a man who claims to be a former employee. It's dated July 11th and in it, OSHA says it received complaints about potential workplace hazards.
Among them are temperatures reaching over 100 degrees due to no proper ventilation inside the warehouse, extension cords being chained together to provide power to equipment and having no access to first aid supplies or safety stations, such as an eye wash, readily available.
The letter states OSHA doesn't intend to conduct an investigation just yet. Instead, it's asking Redline Steel to look into the claims and to report back.
By all appearances, Redline Steel is a company tailor-made to appeal to Donald Trump.