Pacific Steel & Recycling, based in Great Falls, Mont., has purchased Forest Steel Inc. in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition is effective today.

The facility will operate under the Pacific Steel name. Pacific is retaining all 37 employees of Forest Steel, and owner and president Grant Forest will remain in a consulting capacity.

Pacific moved branch manager Ben Halderman from its steel service center in Pasco to the Dalton Gardens facility.

Forest Steel was started in 1982 in Coeur d’Alene. Originally a one-man operation, it processed recycling and sold new steel.

Pacific Steel & Recycling is entirely employee-owned, with 850 employees at 43 branches in Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, Utah and Colorado.

Originally incorporated as Pacific Hide & Fur Depot, the company started as a one-man operation by Joe Thiebes Sr., a German immigrant, in Spokane in the 1880s.

Pacific sells steel to fabricators and also processes scrap metal to be recycled at steel mills.

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