Some businesses have a founding story. HFW Industries has an 80-year one, and it starts in a World War II foundry.
I sat down with Jack Watson, the fourth generation to work in his family's business in Buffalo. HFW does turnkey thermal spray and hard facing, the coating work that keeps power plants, turbines, and other critical infrastructure running. But the throughline of our whole conversation was the journey: how a company gets from a spray gun bought out of the back of a salesman's car to a 70,000 square foot shop still serving customers it first won three generations ago.
Jack's great-grandfather Harold spotted thermal spray as a brand-new technology during the war, and when his boss wouldn't buy in, he bought the equipment himself and sold the service out of his car. His grandfather took over at 26 with the business four weeks from closing. His dad rebuilt half the company when the print cylinder business went to zero. Every generation faced a crisis that could have ended the whole thing, and every generation found the next opportunity.
What carried through all of it is a focus on people. Jack half-jokes that you need a psychology degree to run a shop, and he tells a story about a simple thank you that brought one of his guys to tears. Management by walking around, treating people well, training patiently for years: that's the culture his grandfather built and Jack is protecting as he brings in the next generation.
We also get into why they carry almost no debt, how Jack balances his own hunger to grow against everything the generations before him learned the hard way, and where thermal spray and precision machining are headed with gas turbines and AI driving demand. If you care about building a shop that lasts, this one's worth your time.
What's Covered in this Episode
- (0:00) Introducing Jack Watson and HFW Industries in Buffalo
- (4:50) What HFW looks like today: 60 people and a full thermal spray lineup
- (6:43) Industrial AI Conference at IMTS: reality-based AI for the factory floor
- (7:31) Back to the beginning: 4 generations of HFW Industries
- (11:44) Selling thermal spray out of the back of a car (with donuts to GE every Monday)
- (14:32) The industries HFW serves and machining materials above 50 RC
- (17:00) The coolest work they can never show share
- (18:26) Navu: AI chat for your manufacturing website
- (19:41) Solving near-impossible coating and machining problems alongside demanding customers
- (21:10) Rebuilding the apprenticeship program, meshing generations, and letting young guys make cheap mistakes
- (26:50) Building the HFW way: a structured curriculum beyond trade school
- (29:45) Recruiting tactics that work: word of mouth, being a good employer, and social media
- (33:02) Pay, benefits, 90% tuition assistance, and small surprises
- (34:55) What great listening actually looks like on the shop floor
- (35:51) The thank-you that brought a machinist to tears, and why the little things matter
- (37:05) Connecting customers to the guys who do the work
- (38:22) Hire MFG Leaders: recruiting built by shop owners
- (38:54) Using social media as your true self to build a real network and win work
- (40:58) Grandfather's money philosophy: conservative growth, no debt, and cash on hand
- (42:55) How his dad rebuilt half the business when print cylinders went to zero
- (46:34) The succession plan, the demand outlook
- (48:37) The demand outlook and opportunities for growth
Resources Mentioned
Connect with Jack Watson
