october2022 - 42

MANAGEMENT
» BendPak founder and chairman
emeritus, Don Henthorn
Photo: BendPak
muffler shops. While in the '60s everyone
was looking to the stars, in the '70s Southern
Californians could barely see past the thick
layer of smog in the sky, so controlling vehicle
emissions became a big business.
And Henthorn's business became bigger
BendPak founder reflects
on career lifting up the
vehicle repair industry
Don Henthorn founded BendPak as an aerospace
machining shop in 1965 and built it into a world-class shop
equipment manufacturer. Here, he reflects on his career.
By John Hitch
» BendPak founder Don
Henthorn volunteered
for the U.S. Army
when he was 19 years
old because " my life
was going nowhere
and I felt I had to
make a change. "
Photo courtesy of Don Henthorn
When Don Henthorn founded a modest
machine shop, Quality Machine & Associates,
in Simi Valley, California, in 1965, the aerospace
industry was booming and the
nation's collective sights were set on
the moon. Henthorn supplied companies
such as Rocketdyne, Rockwell,
and Hughes Aircraft with precision
parts, but he wanted to do more than
make parts for other companies. He
wanted to invent his own.
And that's what he did over the next
decade, first with a ball-joint replacement
tool for automotive front ends called the
5ivePak. This all-in-one tool combined
a coil spring compressor, U-joint press,
and gear puller. Then he patented the
Macpherson Strut Spring Compressor
and a handheld portable hydraulic tailpipe
extender. After the construction of
a 20,000-sq.-ft. manufacturing facility in
1977 came the introduction of a hydraulic
tubing bender to ease maintenance in
42 Fleet Maintenance | October 2022
because of it, as the company increasingly
focused on serving muffler shops, and
the name was changed to BendPak, now a
recognized name in both automotive and
commercial vehicle maintenance circles for
its lifting technology. The company has sold
more than 500,000 vehicle lifts since 1984
and includes a wide range of products such
as car and truck service lifts, pipe benders, air
compressors, tire changers, wheel balancers,
wheel aligners, brake lathes, and more. Along
with the BendPak brand, the company also
owns Ranger, Cool Boss, MaxJax, Dannmar,
and several others. A private fleet called Bolt
Transport was even started up by BendPak this
year to ensure reliable delivery of its freight.
Overall, BendPak said its revenue grew by
more than 200% over the last decade.
Now, 57 years after Henthorn started
up that job shop, BendPak claims to be the
world's largest supplier of lifts and automotive
equipment. Henthorn has decided to go out
on top, and in August he handed command
over to his trusted employee of 40 years, Jeff
Kritzer, who was promoted from EVP to president
and CEO. Henthorn, now 83, has become
chairman emeritus.
He may not be as active in the day-to-day,
but he has a treasure trove of transportation
industry insights in his head, chiefly on
managing a successful business, and he shared
some of them with Fleet Maintenance shortly
after his succession took place.
[This interview has been edited for clarity.]
Fleet Maintenance: How did you end up in
the shop equipment industry?
Don Henthorn: In the beginning, I did contract
machine work in the aircraft industry. I liked
working with my hands and I was always eager
to learn. If I would be in a place where I didn't
learn enough, I'd leave and go to another job
just so that I could learn more. Working in the
machining industry, you either had as much
work as you can handle or more, or you had
no work. I became dismayed with that and
decided to pursue some other areas.
I wound up developing a couple of patents
on hand tools. One was the 5ivePak, a handheld
tool that you could use to replace ball
joints on the front end of a car without having
to remove the lower A arm, and another one
was the McPherson Strut Spring Compressor.
That kind of led me to develop the bending
machine for exhaust jobs in the late '70s.
I could see that the future opportunities
would be limited, so that's when I developed
the four-post lift. The exhaust industry was
really booming in those days and there were
october2022

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