This is the final chapter of the Ben Clements and Sons, Inc. / Tach-It 60 year story.
For many years, my father Alan Clements, knowing that the garment manufacturing market would leave the shores of the United States, networked and developed many other relationships with internationally recognized factories. One of these factories was Siat of Italy. In the spring of 1996 with Siat having trouble with their existing U.S. agent, Ben Clements and Sons, Inc was offered Siat’s product line of hand-held tape guns and their other small tape dispensing products. Having been offered various tape machines over the past years, our company jumped at the opportunity to represent such a well-known manufacturer. With the Siat products as a proprietary and complete offering, we went back to the other tape machinery manufactures and built the largest line of tape dispensers and applicators in the North American market.
At the end of the 1990’s while visiting a tradeshow in Seoul, Alan along with our South Korean office manager met a company manufacturing label dispensers and applicators. Seeing that there was a need in the market for this type of equipment, we made an exclusive arrangement with this factory. As our success with the label dispensers grew, we also added to this product line from other manufacturers and created our line of Entry Level Automation Tape and Label Dispensers and Applicators.
As our reach within the packaging industry grew, there were also some challenges. In 2008, the youngest of the 3 brothers, Stanley passed away. With the oldest brother Irwin retired, management of the company was shared between my father and me. Working together, we continued to grow the business and as father and son working together, we had 1 rule. Outside of the office whether we were golfing or enjoying a football game, we were family. Business was not to be discussed during these special times. In 2016, Alan passed away after long and multiple battles with cancer. To assist, I hired Dorcas Richmond-David as the Vice President of Business Development and later that year, also hired James (Jim) Lyon as National Sales Manager. With the diverse backgrounds of Steven, Dorcas and Jim, many changes were made to the company to help support and grow the business and product lines. It was at that time that we created our new tag line: “Tach-It is Entry Level Automation.”
I am sorry to announce that just a few weeks ago the last and oldest brother passed at the age of 94.
I am very proud to be able to carry on the legacy of a 60 year family business. The business is and will always be named after Ben Clements, my grandfather and a wonderful man and the memories of his 3 sons working together for a common goal has always been and will always be an inspiration to all the people involved in this organization.
The next 60 years are looking very bright for the future of Tach-It and Ben Clements and Sons, Inc and I am proud to be part of the history and legacy of this company. I personally as well as everyone on Team Tach-It are proud to represent what the founders of this company built.
THANK YOU to all our present, past and future distributors and clients for their patronage and support and we look forward to working with you and assisting you with your packaging needs. The same as we have done for 60 years now.
