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The Midmark Experience Center features several dental, medical and veterinary office mockups that allow prospective clients to better see and understand how Midmark products work.
VERSAILLES - Through purposeful designs and strategic acquisitions, an area manufacturer has grown from a small machining company making industrial equipment to a global health care company producing innovative equipment in a little over a century.
Founded in Minster as the Cummings Machine Co. in 1915, what is now Midmark Corp. started out manufacturing concrete mixers. The company used patents owned by then company president EC Cummings to manufacture the mixers.
Cummings then acquired Reeves Pulley Co. in 1920 and began making gasoline-powered locomotives. A year later, John W. Eiting was appointed to its board of directors, kicking off four generations of Eiting leadership within the company. John Eiting became the president of the company, now called Industrial Equipment Co., in 1925.
Midmark was founded in 1915 as the Cummings Machine Company in Minster, Ohio, manufacturing concrete mixers. In 1921, John W. Eiting was appointed to the board of directors, and the company began undertaking contract fabrications work. Four years later, JW Eiting became president of what was then called the Industrial Equipment Company.
In the 1960s, Midmark entered the medical market and changed its name to IE Industries. In 1969, the company moved to Versailles.
The company, which just celebrated its 110th anniversary, has been able to consistently reinvent itself year-after-year. It's biggest transition occurred in the 1960s under the leadership of John's son Carl, when it ventured into the medical equipment market, moved its headquarters to their current home in Versailles and eventually, by the end of the decade, took on the name Midmark.
"That shift really changed the direction of the company. From that, we grew through the years," current CEO Jon Wells said. "In the last 20 years, we added dental products as well as veterinary products."
In 2004 Midmark rebranded with this new logo.
In addition to its headquarters in Versailles, Midmark has five other U.S. facilities, located at Austin Landing in Miamisburg; Traverse City, Michigan; Kansas City, Kansas; Glasgow, Kentucky; and Tampa, Florida.
They also maintain international subsidiaries in Italy and India.
Its Austin Landing location takes up 12,700 square feet; Kentucky - 63,700 square feet; Kansas - 209,650 square feet; Florida - 1,200 square feet; and Michigan - 12,450 square feet.
Midmark's base in Versailles takes up a massive 680,885 square feet in total; this includes 502,385 square feet of total manufacturing space, 174,000 square feet of office space and a 4,500-square-foot warehouse for new product development.
After starting as a machining company in Minster Midmark is now a global provider of health care equipment in Versailles.
With help from its 2,000 employees worldwide, of which 1,200 are in Versailles, the corporation's mission is: "Improving the experience between the patient and the caregiver is at the heart of everything we do."
To deliver on that commitment, Midmark designs a comprehensive ecosystem of products for medical, dental and veterinary environments, Wells said.
Its medical offerings include exam and procedure rooms that integrate exam chairs, cabinetry, diagnostic devices and digital workflows. This includes the Midmark CareFlow RTLS (real-time locating systems) and design services.
RTLS is a real-time locating system for its medical customers that uses tags, sensors and badges to track staff, patients and equipment.
The system, powered by Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and infrared technologies, is designed to track assets, optimize patient flow, improve staff safety, automate nurse call systems and provide various medical data.
The company also offers a wide range of dental products. Those include operatories and instrument processing spaces "that support both clinical excellence and patient comfort," Wells said.
In addition, the company is focused on improving the experience of non-human patients too. Its veterinary medicine offerings include "clinical environments designed to meet the unique needs of animal care while supporting efficient, compassionate workflows."
Midmark's business units are a result of numerous company acquisitions over the years, Wells said.
"We've grown through acquisition. We bought a lot of companies over the years to expand our offerings and services to our customers," he said.
The Midmark Experience Center features several dental, medical and veterinary office mockups that allow prospective clients to better see and understand how Midmark products work.
Primarily, Midmark sells its products through distribution partners, which Wells said is beneficial because they understand the company's various markets and customers.
"We also have sales teams who collaborate with health systems, group practices and clinics," Wells said. "Today, we have nearly 150 teammates on our sales team."
The sales team utilizes the Midmark Experience Center in Versailles. The center is much more than a typical showroom, as it features several dental, medical and veterinary office mockups that allow prospective clients to better see and understand how Midmark products work.
"(The center) allows customers to see fully integrated spaces, collaborate with our designers and plan their own care environments. We have hosted 178 customer visits so far (in 2025, as of Dec. 9)," Wells said.
The experiences of visiting customers don't stop at a visit to Midmark's expansive showroom. Its sales team also utilizes the company's network of hospitality ventures in the Versailles area through its subsidiary Renaissance Corp., such as Hotel Versailles downtown and the Stillwater Valley Golf Club just outside of town in Webster.
"These ventures create places where families, our customers and guests can gather, strengthening the social and economic fabric of the community," Wells said. "They also help make Versailles a destination opportunity - a place where people can build global careers while enjoying local amenities."
Jon Wells succeeded John Baumann as CEO of Midmark in 2021.
The idea of caring for one another is at the heart of all of Midmark's ventures, said Dr. Thomas Schwieterman, the company's vice president of clinical affairs and chief medical officer.
That principle has led the corporation to engage heavily in its surrounding communities.
"When you have the means, you have the responsibility. (Our) logo has a heart in the middle, and that is intentional, because we care for our communities and each other," Schwieterman said. "It's not a side story. It's intrinsic to who we are. And, that stems from Jon and from the Eiting family. It's not a push to do that kind of work, it's a pull from leadership."
The company's philanthropic endeavors are led by global philanthropic and corporate giving manager Mitch Eiting.
"Our teammates are passionate about giving back - whether through partnerships with organizations like Community Meals here in Versailles, hosting blood drives or supporting wellness initiatives, we take pride in making a difference where we live and work," Wells said.
Since 2013, Midmark's Versailles employees have donated over 7,000 units of blood, which equates to 1,275 lives saved. Its employees also serve locally in positions on the Versailles Exempted Village Schools Board of Education, the Versailles YMCA board and the board for an area chapter of the American Heart Association.
Recent donations included contributing $100,000 to the village's YMCA re-opening efforts, and a donation of almost 600 sterilizers and exam tables in 2025, which were distributed by World Vision to health facilities serving vulnerable populations.
"Strengthening Versailles, Darke County and the region is essential to sustaining a long-term talent pipeline," Wells added.
Midmark expanded into dental in 1997 through the purchase of Knight Manufacturing, Inc.
Midmark also supports the area by heavily investing in its future through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education.
The company is the primary donor behind Versailles Schools' Technology Center, which opened in October of 2024. The center boasts a STEM classroom with 24 computers and 3D printers, a robotics lab, drone field, and fully functioning wood shop and application space.
"We support STEM programs, robotics and related activities to help students see future careers in this region," Schwieterman said. "We get students excited by focusing on hands-on exposure so they can see and feel real work: robotics and automation; 3D design and modeling; connecting coursework to real-world roles; and coursework in robotics, automation and computer science maps directly to roles at Midmark and other local employers."
Midmark's overall goal is for students in the area to never have to leave the region to find a world-class STEM career if they do not want to, Schwieterman said.
"Our region hosts high-caliber companies - such as Nidec, Crown, Honda, KitchenAid and Dannon - that create serious career pathways and a robust ecosystem for young people," he added.
Schwieterman currently serves as the chair of the state's STEM Committee, a position he was appointed to by the state Senate. The committee focuses on bringing STEM opportunities to all Ohio students, including those in rural communities.
Other ways the company supports STEM education are through their sponsorships of the Darke County STEAM Camp and National Manufacturing Day. As well, they participate in local job shadow weeks and collaborate with the Piqua High School engineering and MedTech programs through equipment donations and education.
In addition to medical and dental, Midmark also offers products like this anesthesia machine for veterinary use.
The company's extensive background in supplying medical equipment has laid the foundation for its recent focus on designing products with empathy.
"Design means more than just aesthetic … It's having empathy for our customers and understanding what the caregiver is experiencing. How can we deliver innovative solutions and the workflows to make it easier for the caregiver to care for the patient versus balancing all the distractions they may experience," Wells said. "If the patient demographic has a difficult time getting on the exam table, we create an exam table that can go very low, (as) it makes it easier to transfer (the patient) to seamlessly receive care. Anything we can do so that interaction between the patient and caregiver is as effective and efficient as possible."
To do so, the company keeps care integration at the forefront of its products, trying to bring together space, equipment and workflow, Schwieterman said.
Also, Midmark works directly with medical professionals on a regular basis, now "more than ever," he added.
"To the point where we have to work with them because we need their insights into how we can make their lives better. You have to work alongside of them," he added. "Every day, we are interacting with our customers in a very powerful way."
The corporation is also focused on making its health care technology smarter, so care teams can spend less time on manual tasks and more time with patients.
To strengthen its footprint and broaden access to technical talent, Midmark is set to expand this year with an 11,000-square-foot innovation hub in the Blue Ash area of Cincinnati.
The company announced in December that it will open the new technology and business center in Cincinnati to serve as a central hub for the company's medical diagnostics and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions.
The Cincinnati location will also keep the team within reach of Midmark's headquarters and largest innovation hub and manufacturing operations in Versailles, allowing them to take advantage of existing facilities and expertise, Wells added.
Midmark expects to open the new site this month.
"What was predominant 20 years ago, it's just different today. There's different needs (and) requirements. It isn't just a box examination table with tongue compressors. There's a lot of data, behavioral health and a lot of engagement between the patient (and) caregiver. Where before, it was the doctor's skill to talk through it," Schwieterman said. "Now you've got these new technologies that are permeating the space. We have to be a part of that."
In the early years, Midmark (then I.E. Industries) salesmen traveled the country with an exam table loaded into the back of a white El Camino. They would sell one and return to pick up another.
