Fahey Machinery Celebrates 50 Years in Business, Three Generations of Sales, Service, and Impeccable Ethics for the Pacific Northwest! Raymond and Lauretta Fahey founded Fahey Machinery Co., Inc. (Fahey Machinery) almost 50 years ago as a machine tool distributor, specializing in sheet metal and steel fabricating equipment. Fahey Machinery has become a leading distributor and represents some of the finest machine tool manufacturers in the industry with a territory that spans the following states: Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Hawaii, and Northern California.
In January of 1964 Raymond’s son, Bill Fahey Sr. was fresh out of college and joined the family business. Bill Sr. had a good amount of experience working with the tools that his family business sold because while going to college he would work for the local shops and with many of the fabrication tools. “It worked out pretty well,” says Bill Sr. “I got to sell the machines I worked with in college and I had a pretty good knowledge of how they worked.This helped me to sell the machinery and help my customers with top of the line products.
He continued, “When I joined the business mom and dad gave me my old room back, a gas card, and a small Founders Raymond and salary per month. I started slow and went on errands Lauretta Fahey the first 4-6 months and basically watched and listened. I went on sales calls with dad and I would watch how Years ago, Raymond Fahey worked in the Los Angeles, he interacted with customers and I would listen. Six California area for the aircraft industry doing precision Aerospace months later dad gave me a list of about 500 names on it and he said fabrication during the Second World War. He worked with various this is your account list, go see them, and I realized at that moment precision sheet metal machines and became proficient at his trade. how little I knew. As a young man one can be pretty cocky and think he is hot stuff, but it took me almost a year before I made my first sale and I will never forget it. I kept plugging away and finally made one. It wasn’t much but it meant the world to me and the feeling and In 1943 the Fahey family moved to the Portland, Oregon area and confidence I had from that first sale propelled me to more sales.” Raymond worked for an aircraft related business there. Shortly after the war ended, the company Raymond worked for went out of In the early days of the business it business. He then went to work was just Bill Sr. and his mom and for a machine tool company that dad. Bill Sr. would drive all over sold metal working machinery. Oregon making sales calls proRaymond’s division sold sheet moting the business to customers metal to sheet metal shops. This and introducing Fahey Machine. company also had a division that After a while his dad let him go sold fabrication equipment and into Idaho and it could take up Raymond soon found his calling to two weeks before he would and began to sell equipment to be home again, a real road warshops in the area. Through his rior considering this was the time vast knowledge of working with when the interstate system was fabrication equipment people just coming into existence and it came to him for advice on what took forever to get anywhere. Bill to purchase for their shops. Sr. would drive through Idaho and into Montana shaking hands and Bill Jr. and TJ Hatfield with Marvels in stock, ready for shipment making a name for Fahey MaEventually Raymond felt he could chinery all the while developing do a better job supporting the the territories. Eventually he worked his way into eastern Washington shops with the fabrication machinery he was knowledgeable about. and expanded the territory there. His sister Mary was hired soon Raymond saw his niche and never looked back. After many 12 hour thereafter as secretary and the four of them worked hard to make days and strategic business moves Raymond and his wife Lauretta every year better than the last. decided to build the business together as a family. The Fahey home became the business location for a number of years. While Raymond pioneered the territory in sales for Fahey Machinery, Lauretta Fahey “Through hard work and determination the business grew every year ran the accounting and day to day affairs at the office, creating a great and it felt good to be a part of the family business,” says Bill Sr. “In partnership with Raymond and a great foundation for Fahey Machinthose days we were a very small company and there were some very ery.When Raymond and Lauretta started the business, Raymond was big competitors with many employees. These other companies had 49 years of age and three of Raymond’s children were either in or many branches throughout the states we covered and we were workgoing to college. It takes a strong individual to strike out on his own ing out of the house. The thing was we specialized in sheet metal and during a period of uncertainty. fabricating equipment and we were the only ones that did that so we A2Z METALWORKER NW •
18 • Oct/Nov 2012