Rich Hoffman

[tonypep]

I'll bite Dave. Many stories here but heres one thing that I took away from many discussions with Rich. When NAFTA hit and all the big boys took their toys and moved offshore I believe that this was when he diverted a great deal of time and energy to the smaller shops still remaining on US soil. He knew there would be a great deal of small order quick turn business that simply could not be contracted offshore. A lot.
He then made a concerted effort to personally reach out to many of these operations and in some cases giving out his personal contact information and getting back to them with any issues or concerns personally. Now; how smart was that? As the smaller shops grew over the years and decades, "Blue Machine" loyalty became a real thing. Collectively this amounted to a huge chunk of business and rocketed M&R to textile domination on US soil. Next came the prepress wave which fueled it even more. To be sure, the competition is on their heels these days and some companies are catching up rapidly.
Quick short story....I posted here about twelve or so years ago lamenting that my Anatols were using cheaper Chinese air lines. We were blowing them like crazy, and replumbing those print heads was a bitch. I found some better grade line locally but shortly after I received a PM from him offering me a roll of his air line (enough to re-plumb two autos not of his manufacture). Free of charge. Difficult to name any individual or company in any industry who did things like that.
Baton officially passed to Barth Gimble.

[3Deep]

Let me add to the Rich Hoffman story, when I was looking for a auto press for our small space I talk to Rich first, he didn't have anything an Anatol Rep contacted me and had a press coming out that was perfect.  I then called Rich again and he said Anatol had a few problems but still made a good press so I went for it, years later Rich contacted me and said they had a smaller press coming out but by this time I was pretty happy with my purchase, now what Rich did for me was to build me some winged flood bars which Anatol didn't have at the time.  @Tonypep yes Anatol had some really crappy airlines I had to replumb our press as well and Rich offered his products for that as well, I used to tell Anatol back in the days when we spoke more often about M&R service which made them step up there game some, at least back then don't know about now, but Rich was and is one hell of a guy, how many people in his position would give out there cell number and say call me if you need help.

[bimmridder]

Sorry for repeating what some of you have heard before. in June of 2008 we had a little flood in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It was called a 1,000 year flood. We had over feet of water in our building. We couldn't even get back in for 5 or six day after the peak of the flood. I'm sure a few of you can imagine the feeling my partners and I felt. The damage was unimaginable. we had to decide to either walk away or push through. This was a Sunday afternoon. I had Rich's cell number. I thought I'd call and leave a message and see if I would get a call back early Monday morning and find out what he suggested we do. Well he answered the phone. It seems he was on his way to a softball game, but I'm not positive. Went spent some time talking and he told me the first things to do the next day, and said we'd talk more on Monday. Over the next few weeks and a number of phone calls it was decided we would send back parts of all three autos and they would be gone through and made functional again. This was done, and when Rich heard we didn't have a building anymore, or no lead on a new one, he told us not to worry. He would store them until we found a place. No questions asked. And at no charge. Since most of the downtown was wiped out by the flood, open space was at a premium and it took until November to secure and have a building ready. Never once did he ask when we'd be getting our machines out of his building.

This is only one story of what Rich did for our company. There isn't enough time and room to write everything down here. I still stay in touch with him. The last time was a few months ago. He sent a picture from where he was at the moment, at his "office" on his boat, holding a nice fish with a big smile on his face. Well deserved Rich. Well deserved.

[Homer]

He helped me tremendously, one time sending a tech down from Toronto to bail me out of a jam and only charged me 500.00......this was back in 2009. Solid human, that guy.... Not too sure I agree with the current business model of M&R but, to each their own.