Last week, our team was back on the road, meeting with folks at the 2023 AHR Expo in Atlanta, Georgia. It was great to see the show in full swing and attendance back to what seemed to be pre-pandemic levels. There definitely was a buzz and excitement at this year’s show, and a lot of great new product innovation from companies across the board!
At the Malco booth, in addition to showcasing our newest products—the Offset Andy Snips and our C-RHEX Sawtooth — we also had the chance to reconnect with many end users of our products and hear so many positive comments and stories about how Malco tools have been in HVAC professionals’ tool bags and trucks for years thanks to the high quality and craftsmanship of our products.
Hearing these stories is such a great testament to how our team has not only been able to innovate and develop industry-leading tools like the new products we showcased at the event, but also how our commitment to quality means that a product bearing the Malco name is a tool that you can rely on for years to come.
This is one of my favorite aspects of attending tradeshows like the AHR Show—the ability to meet face-to-face with the many distributors, partners and trade pros and hear their stories from the jobsite, and furthermore, how our tools are making a difference in getting the job done faster and safer than ever before.
While there are many examples I could share, a few that stand out to me include a conversation I had with a gentleman who has been in the HVAC installation business for 30 years, and now currently owns his own business. He told me he has had 100% of the Malco line in his tool bag since 1982, and knows that if it has the Malco name, it’s a tool he can trust. In fact, he’s such a fan of Malco that he said if we made a brown paper bag with our name on it, he’d buy it!
Another great story came from a 78-year-old business owner who taught a team of installers in Jordan, Middle East, on how to use Malco tools on the job site instead of using screwdrivers and pliers to work with sheet metal—which was very time consuming and cumbersome. He said that when he showed them how to use our Power Assisted Hole Cutter vs hand cutting, they were blown away by how easy it was. They were sold! He’s going back overseas in April and plans on bringing more Malco tools to share with them and I’m sure will have many more great stories to share.
For me, this is the best part of the job and the reason that our entire team does what it does each day. We know we make “Damn Good Tools,” but hearing it first-hand time and time again from the people that depend on our products for their livelihood makes what we do even better.
Authored by Malco President and CEO Rich Benninghoff