Pirtek Madison Heights (Michigan) marked 10 years of successfully servicing customers with their onsite hose replacement needs.

Processing meat to peddling hose and fittings may sound like an unlikely career path to most people, but not to Eli Dorfman, owner of Pirtek Madison Heights.

“Business is business,” said Dorfman, “and it’s all about hard work and doing things right the first time, no matter what the industry is or its customer base.”

After retiring from the meat processing industry, Dorfman was itching to launch a second career, and Pirtek caught his eye. He opened the Madison Heights shop in 1999 and another one three years later in Westland, just west of Detroit.

“I visited the Pirtek operation in Chicago [Illinois], and the business interested me immediately,” said the mechanical engineering graduate.

Pushing retirement to the wayside, Dorfman is busy taking care of business at both the Madison Heights and Westland Centers, but he is quick to pat the backs of his staff for day-to-day support.

“I have excellent management,” Dorfman said, “and I know both shops are in good hands when I’m taking time out for my grandchildren.”

He said business is soft, like it is all over the country, but the Madison Heights operation is busy enough to keep five mobile sales and service technicians and vans on the road canvassing any business that uses hydraulics.

“Professionalism and quality workmanship are very important in this industry,” Dorfman said. “They are the reason that customers keep coming back to us instead of the competition.”

Oliver Romano serves as general manager for both the Madison Heights and Westland operations. The Madison Heights staff also includes Ed Cushing, operations manager and Gail Egnatoski, administrative manager.

Founded in 1996, Rockledge, Fla.-based Pirtek USA is a service provider of ETA 1 Hour onsite Hose Replacement. Pirtek offers a 24-hour, 7-day service that serves almost every facet of industry including construction, manufacturing, transportation, agriculture and engineering. When an equipment breakdown occurs, it often results in costly delays in time and labor before the proper replacement hose is located and installed, but Pirtek vans carry the component parts necessary to manufacture hose assemblies on site. Hose and fittings also can be purchased over-the-counter at Pirtek’s national network of service centers. There are 40 Pirtek service centers nationwide and more than 180 Pirtek mobile service vans serving major metropolitan markets throughout the country.

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