History - The Timeline
1967 - H. W. (Bill) Howard founded Howard Graphic Equipment. The first location was a 250 sq. ft. rented space at the rear of a friend’s shop in Oakville, a suburb of Toronto. As business grew, Bill moved his operation to another facility in Oakville in 1969.
1970 - To accommodate a growing business, HGE relocated to an industrial unit in Mississauga, another suburb West of Toronto. In addition to used machinery, its product line now included new lines of small printing related equipment, printing ink and supplies.
1973 - The operation moved to a 5,000 sq. ft. industrial unit in Mississauga allowing the handling and storage of larger offset presses and representation of new lines of camera and platemaking equipment, and larger stock of ink and supplies. 1982 saw another expansion of HGE’s facility by the acquisition of an additional 5,000 sq. ft. doubling the total space to 10,000 sq. ft. In the late 70’s and early 80’s, the activities grew to include international business and representation of new bindery equipment, thermo-engraving equipment and diecutting/embossing line of machinery.
1985 - The move to its own custom-built 21,000 sq. ft. building in Mississauga was a remarkable milestone in the history of HGE. The new facility featured many specialized spaces allowing for a better flow of production and working environment for the growing staff. The major growth of the company, in size and worldwide recognition, was significantly evident during this period. Under the direction of Nick Howard, the company’s reputation as the most forwardlooking operation in the pre-owned printing equipment market is most notable. By the mid 1990’s, with the facility being no longer able to properly accommodate the needs of the operation to HGE’s standard, a decision was then made to relocate and the search for a suitable building site began.
1998 - Located in one of the most prestigious corporate industrial sectors in the Greater Toronto Area, the construction of HGE’s new building was completed in July 1998. The 68,000 sq. ft. modern building, built to HGE’s exacting specifications, embodies HGE’s true vision of what a reconditioning facility should be. The new facility houses the corporate offices and nearly 60,000 sq. ft. of production space which encompasses the cleaning & painting area, assembly and pre-staging hall, machine shop, parts storage and indoor shipping bays.
2000 - HGE launched and implemented the HQS - Howard Quality Standard protocols designed specifically for the reconditioning of secondhand printing machinery with a strong emphasis on “quality”. With more than 800 checks and verification steps, the HQS is the most comprehensive reconditioning program for pre-owned printing machinery in the industry.
2004 - The plan for a further 21,000 sq. ft. expansion of the building is on the drawing board with a completion date scheduled for Summer 2005.
