COMPANY HISTORY IIn the early days of World War II, Michael Joest founded Imperial Machine & Tool Company with borrowed money and a few small machine tools. With persistence and perspiration he was able to exploit opportunities necessitated by the war effort. From the very beginning our concentration has been on quality products and customer service. The focus has not changed over the decades -- customers still need and deserve top drawer quality and a firm dedication to their needs. With the retirement of Michael Joest in the early 1960’s, his son, George Joest, Sr. took the reins of the company. Trained as a mechanical engineer and with additional electronics training during the Korean conflict, he proved to be a natural leader, navigating Imperial Machine & Tool through the very exciting and interesting days of the 60’s, 70’s, and early 80’s. With a dual focus on some of the large military and space programs (Lunar Lander and Saturn) as well as developmental and production work for the fledgling computer and high tech industry, Imperial Machine & Tool continued to grow and prosper. George Joest, Sr.’s versatility and varied skills laid a firm foundation for Imperial’s next generation. George Joest, Sr.’s sons, George and Chris, grew up in the business. From painting and machine maintenance during the summers right on through their apprenticeship and formal training as machinists they learned the metal machining/fabricating business from the inside. When George Joest, Sr. retired suddenly in 1985, George and Chris hit the ground running. Continuing to build on their dad’s success with technology companies, they built, prospered, and planned the company’s future. In 1995 George and Chris relocated the company headquarters and manufacturing facility to the rural setting of Blairstown, New Jersey. This move began a period of unprecedented growth and success for the company. With an influx of eager and talented employees as well as new facilities and equipment, Imperial was able to take advantage of expanding opportunities in the military products sector. As both a prime contractor to the U.S. Department of Defense as well as a sub-contractor to many major defense firms, Imperial concentrated on expanding our role into military hardware. With early and conspicuous involvement in the M777 Lightweight Howitzer program we were able to forge strong relationships throughout many areas of the military. Long known as a “go to” source for difficult and demanding projects, we were able to bring our unique skills in manufacturing and our drive for outstanding customer service to bear. This ability to excel in the very demanding arena of precision manufacture enabled us to achieve a much desired balance of industries served. While approximately half of our work was semiconductor or tech sector related, the other half was military or defense related. This blend of sectors proved invaluable as the economy and business in general experienced the “tech bubble” and related meltdown of the late 90’s early 2000’s. In short order the needs of the business and our expanding workload led us to build an addition to our facility. In 2001 we completed a 15,000 square foot expansion project, bringing our total facility size to 30,000 square feet. Over the next few years we continued our drive to purchase new equipment and added machining capacity. We favor Haas machine tools and continued buying their equipment on a regular basis. In addition to our production equipment, we concentrated heavily on CNC programming stations and shared networking capabilities. The entire facility was wired for easy and total network access, enabling all of us to share data, programs, solid models and related technical and business information easily and efficiently. This approach has provided us the capability to pursue leading edge solutions and share them across our entire production facility. As Imperial was changing so too was our management team. An avid outdoorsman, George longed to spend more time in the Big Sky country out West. Chris and George agreed to an amicable buy out and in September 2008, George was able to realize his dreams and move to his ranch outside Cody, Wyoming. Without his 30 plus years of service to Imperial Machine & Tool we would not be the success story we are. George’s legacy however lives on at Imperial with his son Michael representing the 4th generation of Joests in the business. As Program Manager Mike is actively involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. As we approach our 70th anniversary in business, the commitment to our customers, our community and our employees remains steadfast and strong. We continue with our time honored tradition of dedication to the principles of excellence and integrity that Imperial has long stood for. We look forward to continuing the tradition of Joest family management and are confident Mike will successfully continue the traditions of excellence and customer service his great grandfather began so many, many years ago.