Celebrating 60 Years of Tach-It
WOW, I can’t believe that 60 years ago Ben Clements and Sons, Inc was formed (this was before I was born).
During the early 1960’s Ben Clements, his wife Molly (my grandparents) and their 3 Sons Irwin, Alan and Stanley ran a successful stationary store on West 38th street in Manhattan. Located in the heart of the New York City Garment Center, this store named R.E. Wahrman, was a major printer of tags used by the garment manufacturers and retailers. Alan, my dad, and the middle son was very interested in growing the business outside of the local market. One day in the store, he was approached by a gentleman from Japan Ken (his English name) who was in New York learning the U.S. market and promoting his company. After a few meetings Alan and Ken became very fast friends and discussed their businesses together.
Shortly after Ken returned to Japan, he contacted Alan advising him of a Japanese manufacturer who had developed a tagging system to apply tags to garments. Alan flew to Japan and met with this company and left a few days later with a hand shake exclusive arrangement. Tach-It was born. As this tag attaching business grew, my grandfather Ben retired and his 3 Sons opened Ben Clements and Sons, Inc. in his honor and made him the first Chairman of the Board.
Our exclusive arrangement with this manufacturer is still in effect today. It’s been 60 years and after selling hundreds of thousands of tagging gun and billions upon billions of fasteners, we are still the leading provider of these products today. When first introduced, my mother Marilyn came up with the trademark Tach-It which is internationally recognized and many of the innovations within tag attaching were our including the fine fabric fasteners and also the tagging hook-ups.
This is the beginning of a successful family-owned business that is still working after 60 years. Please stay tuned for more about the growth and changes and how Tach-It became a leader in Entry Level Automation.
