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Poynter Sheet Metal
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If Joseph Lansdell were 34 instead of 39, you might be reading about Dr. Lansdell rather than sheet metal company president Lansdell.
Lansdell loves sports and considered studying sports medicine in college. But at the time the field was relatively new and he wasn’t sure what its future would be.
So he went into the family business, beginning as an apprentice in 1991 and moving around and up. “We had a good home and a nice life in the trades, and that’s why I pursued it,” he said.
He joined Bloomington-based Poynter Sheet Metal in 2002 as a project manager and became president in 2008. The company has a sales office here. “I’m not 40 years [old]. I don’t look older, but people think I’m older because I’ve been doing this for so long,” Lansdell said.
You’ll find Poynter’s handiwork in the Indiana Convention Center, Indianapolis International Airport, Mackey Arena and Indiana Live Casino, among other places, although you won’t see it since it’s used to make the ducts that carry air through buildings.
But Poynter does more than that. A couple of years ago, when the economy began to nosedive, Lansdell realized the company needed another avenue for business. So Poynter expanded to build things like silos, pharmaceutical tanks and wine vessels.
“We realized we needed a product line that could fill in the gaps on our construction line, so we started pushing the wine and food and beverage vessels,” he said. “We’re having good success with that. We hope to be the Midwest’s wine-vessel manufacturer.”
Outside work, Lansdell maintains the passion for sports that got him interested in sports medicine years ago. He and his wife have three children and make their home in Greenwood, where he serves on the board of the Center Grove Bantam Football League.
“I love football,” he said. “I had a passion for that and still do. I played football since I was a little boy and that’s what I wanted to do. Sports medicine was just a niche profession and I didn’t feel comfortable [pursuing it].”•
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