Q: How would you describe your company’s primary business?
A: Hydrapower International Inc. has the world’s largest product line of metal forming machinery with sales activity worldwide. With almost 50 years of leading design we see that most of the features we developed are on today’s high end press brakes, adopted by other brands.

Q: In brief, what is the history of your company?
A: Hydrapower was established in Australia in 1969 and became a USA company in 1972 located in Norfolk, Va. Sales took off because we had the best designs with the newly evolving hydraulically powered machines. We devoted all our resources to product development while other old brands devoted their efforts to negative sales. In spite of these naysayers we outlasted them and continued to grow and they disappeared.

Q: How has Hydrapower changed through the years?
A: From the 1970s Hydrapower experienced rapid growth and this created labor shortages. We solved this by establishing licensed manufacturing in other locations throughout the world and this allowed us to focus on R and D. We introduced North America’s first CNC press brake at IMTS in 1978. The product line expanded and during the 1980’s we had built the 4 biggest press brakes in the world. During the 1990s the USA market was becoming saturated with machines from Asia and Turkey. They were almost all carbon copy designs of each other. We saw the opportunity to supply custom built machines such as long machines with low tonnage for sheet metal applications and this eliminated the copy cats from the equation. Now the USA market is a minor percentage of our worldwide sales and manufacturing.

Q: What difficulties have you faced in the American market this past year?
A: The difficulties in the American market seem the same every year. There are many big names in our industry that import Asian machines and tell the customers they are made in Canada. The customers buy cheap Asian imports and complain about the quality and lack of service. Their difficulties seem to result from a lack of funding.

Q: What successes has your company had since last year?
A: Our notable success this year is the market growth for our Lasers. We predicted that there would be a good potential for these in shops with a low volume of laser work. The YAG lasers provide excellent value and now we have repeated this philosophy with our Fiber Lasers. The price difference between them is minimal so we offer an unbeatable choice.

Q: What are your thoughts on mistakes Job Shop owners make when starting their business?
A: This is a big subject and I have 50 years of history on the question. Many times, I have talked to new Job Shops. When I ask why they bought a very expensive machine they say their customers will give them more work because of the brand name. But there are a lot more of these slightly used machines found in auctions and this means the user did not achieve the success he expected. If a machine is paying for itself the owner would keep it. There seems to be a lack of interest in evaluating a machine before committing to buy it. Hydrapower users keep their machines. Rarely will you find a used Hydrapower. We do upgrades on 40 years old machines and install the latest technology.

Q: What do you want to see in the future for the industry?
A: In the Job Shop segment I expect to see substantial growth and if imports are reduced, the Made in USA expansion has to follow. We export 80% of our products and that may be a concern for us depending on trade agreements. There are automated machines that we offer for the mass production applications and the USA will be able to compete even in job shop operations. The Job Shops offer custom or short run products and their customers don’t want to wait for it to come from far away. When we implement the infrastructure plan the job shops will benefit so it will be a turning point when it begins.