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History
When Harry Hirsch created Hirsch International Corp., his idea was simple: "Sell the best equipment and provide customers with the best support." The year was 1968, and Hirsch's line of equipment consisted of knitting machines, which were used for the production of double-knit yard goods, sweaters, and gloves. During the late sixties, the marketplace was good and under Mr. Hirsch's management the company began to grow. In the early seventies, a young accountant named Henry Arnberg and a bright-eyed graduate of New York University named Paul Levine were hired to help Mr. Hirsch grow the company.
In late 1975, Mr. Hirsch and Mr. Arnberg went to the ITMA show in Milan, Italy, where they met with Tajima Industries. 1976 memorialized Hirsch's Distributorship Agreement with Tajima.
The late seventies were a busy time for embroiderers. The hot products of the day were towels, golf wear, and jean pockets.
In September of 1980, Mr. Hirsch passed away while on a business trip in Germany. Henry and Paul acquired the company and decided that customers would receive better service by adding distributors to parts of the country that they could not cover well from the East Coast.
The plan worked and by focusing more intensely on its East Coast territory, Hirsch was able to provide Tajima with valuable insights into the U.S. market. At the same time Hirsch provided Tajima with further insight into the U.S. market. Tajima used this information to develop innovative engineering advancements such as thread trimmers, color change mechanisms, cap and tubular capabilities, and increasing the number of needles per head.
It became common to find embroidery on places it had never been before. Even though Tajima's equipment made the embroidery process more profitable, creating good embroidery artwork was difficult and time consuming. At the time it would take a puncher (now known as a digitizer) a full day to create a design. Computers were just starting to be used in the digitizing process; however, the majority of the punching was being done manually.
In 1990, Henry and Paul met the founders of Pulse Microsystems; Tas Tsonis and Brian Goldberg. Tas and Brian had begun to change the way people thought about digitizing and embroidery software systems. Pulse software's intuitive feel helped convert manual punchers to the productive computerized methods.
In 1994, Hirsch decided to "go public." The idea was to strengthen Hirsch financially so it could better serve its customers. With the money generated, Hirsch purchased Pulse Microsystems and invested the remainder in its support departments. The formula worked. Hirsch's service, supply, accounting, and sales staffs were better able to serve their customers. Meanwhile, the advantage of owning a software company was paying additional dividends and Hirsch was fast learning to teach their customers how to use embroidery software systems to increase profits.
In 1996 Hirsch's management team made a move that changed the face of the embroidery industry. It acquired SMX and SEDECO and for the first time since 1980, Hirsch International Corp. was Tajima's exclusive distributor for almost the entire continental United States.
In September 2001, Paul Gallagher joined Hirsch International Corp as its Chief Operating Officer and in 2003, Mr. Gallagher was appointed the Company's President as well as a director. In December 2004, Henry Arnberg appointed Paul Gallagher to the position of Chief Executive Officer. Henry remains the Chairman of the Board of Directors.
In September, 2004, Hirsch introduced the new Tajima machines featuring MicroSmartTM Technology (the "M" Series). This cutting edge technology optimized microchip integration into the design and operation of the machine, producing the world's smartest and easiest machine to operate.
On August 2, 2006, Hirsch entered into a 10-year agreement with MHM Siebdruckmaschinen GmbH for exclusive distribution and support of MHM screen printing equipment throughout North America. The MHM line includes a full line of automatic textile screen printing presses in a wide range of models from start-up to high-volume 18-color machines. Globally, MHM is recognized as the most advanced textile screen printing equipment produced.
Further establishing Hirsch as a full-service supplier of apparel decorating equipment was addition of SEIT textile laser bridge equipment. In January 24, 2007 Hirsch entered into a 10-year exclusive distribution agreement with SEIT Electronica SRL. With this agreement Hirsch will provide distribution and support services for SEIT Electronica's textile laser systems throughout the United States. SEIT textile laser bridge enables decorators to engrave pictures, text, or logos directly onto garments. SEIT also cuts individual or multiple layers of fabric in a single step. This laser bridge system works in conjunction with Tajima multihead embroidery machines enabling decorators to embroider and cut appliqué rapidly.
Pulse continues to innovate with its software driver for SEIT textile laser bridge and most recently Pulse Studio, the first and only embroidery digitizing software that works within AdobeR Illustrator. Pulse is the only embroidery software company in the U.S.A. to have been certified by Microsoft - a great achievement.
Today TAJIMA, MHM, SEIT, KORNIT, MIMAKI and PULSE are Hirsch's partners in Technology Leadership.
President and CEO Paul Gallagher said, "We have built a proven business model through which we provide superior distribution and support services for high-quality equipment in the decorated apparel industry. The recent addition of SEIT further expands our model allowing for strong financial performance. With more than 25 sales offices and showrooms across the country, a highly experienced nationwide sales force, and a strong corporate structure we are able to provide an unparalleled level of support to our customers."