Albrecht retires after more than 31 years of service to Scotchman Industries

Mike Albrecht started working for Scotchman Industries on October 17, 1994, as an outside salesman. When Mike first came to Scotchman, we purchased a demo truck with the idea of using it to visit different reps and dealers to highlight the bigger machines reps did not have in their units. He had the privilege of driving the demo truck around the United States collaborating with our reps, visiting dealers, and demonstrating our products to end users. He would drive the truck for a week, fly home for a week, and then fly back out to move the truck to the next area to continue demonstrating it to customers. Mike figures he has made three loops around the US in those 10 years.

In 1994, Scotchman had only two product lines – ironworkers and cold saws. After 10 years of driving a demo truck around, Mike was instrumental in building a saw trailer that we could haul around to customers, dealers, and reps to demo our saw line. He was focused on the cold saw line becoming the Cold Saw Product Manager in 2004.  As time went on, Mike saw the need for automation and worked hard to bring that to Scotchman. In the fall of 2006, we expanded our product lines to include programmable stop and feed systems – first partnering with Tiger Stop and then transitioning to RazorGage by 2016.

In 2013, Scotchman expanded our product lines again to include a utility band saw and non-ferrous up-cut saws imported from Spain. Mike was the driving force behind bringing these products into the business. He was also very instrumental in updating the technology of our HFA and RFA saws to a CNC touch screen.

Mike believed automation was the name of the game, so he pushed for our Auto Loader saw system to be implemented in September 2018. The auto loader along with other measuring devices has proven to be extremely successful in our current economy.

Throughout the years, Mike has held various titles – outside salesman, product specialist, cold saw product manager, and then in September 2009, he became National Sales Manager. You name it and Mike has done that job for our company--oversaw our customer service department, worked with our factory reps nationwide, answered phone calls about service problems, phone calls about people wanting to buy products and has planned and attended many trade shows over the years.  
Mike’s favorite part of the job has been talking to customers. “I love to sell. I have enjoyed traveling all over. The first trip to a city is always memorable. The 8th or 10th trip is not nearly as exciting! Something unique is that I probably know someone in every city in every state!  I’ve traveled abroad in 10 different countries and attended hundreds of trade shows.”  Mike said the hardest part of traveling was missing family time.  He missed his daughters’ activities as he was doing part of his job.   
Mike’s least favorite trip was to India.  He has traveled to many countries but the culture and experience of India was definitely not the top of his list.  Traveling outside of the US, cultures are definitely different.  It is interesting to see how other cultures live and what their traditions are.  Once in Spain, MG Tronz took him to what would be considered a county fair in the US.  Underneath the tent, there were tons of people and hundreds of vats of boiling octopus. He said they all sat down at these long tables, passed around plates of octopus, baskets of bread and bottles of wine.  It was definitely a unique experience.

Over Mike’s time at Scotchman, he has seen many changes in our sales, product line, and employees. He stated that he has ‘spent almost half of his life here at Scotchman.’  Mike has expanded our saw line and pushed those products to be at the top of their game. 
Brad Heltzel states “As a company, we’ve been incredibly fortunate to have Mike on our team.  His dedication, leadership, and vision helped drive Scotchman forward for decades.  He’ll be greatly missed, but we’re excited for him to enjoy a well-earned retirement.
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Even though Mike is retiring after more than 31 years of employment, he still has plenty to do. He has big plans in the next few weeks--going on a bear hunt and a to-do list for his daughters and relatives is getting longer—building decks, remodeling homes.  But we are sure he will be getting some fishing and other adventures in during his free time.

Thank you, Mike, for your years of service, words cannot express the level of gratitude that Scotchman owes you! Happy 
Retirement!!!