Hog Wash Company Background

Herdor's Inc. was started in 1968 by Herman & Kris Katsche in their garage. The company initially serviced glass shops with windshield sealants, seam sealers and other glass shop supplies. Eventually the glass shops wanted silicone spray so Herman bought used lab equipment so he could produce silicone spray. As time went on, the glass shops wanted carburetor cleaner and penetrating oil. Herman responded accordingly and the results went over extremely well, so much so that they sold off the windshield sealant.

Originally the carburetor cleaner was called Carbinox and the penetrating oil was called Vary Oil, but the names were not catchy enough and were difficult to sell. One day in 1978 Herman and Kris were stuck in a traffic jam on the Dan Ryan. Two politicians were speaking with each other on the radio, referring to the "hogwash" word. It instantly hit Herman and Kris who decided to change the name of their company. Immediately after doing so, their business took off. The garage they were using all of a sudden became too small.

Soon the aerosol became so popular that Herman sold the windshield business and made aerosol products exclusively. As the company grew he moved the business to a former bar, ironically named the "Hog Barn." They didn't last long at that location before moving the business to Chicago Rig and finally to a permanent location in Moneka.

Herman and Kris purchased a used aerosol line and proceeded to develop an automated line that would increase production dramatically. Along with a larger facility and more sophisticated production processes came an increase in staff. The business was growing rapidly and Hogwash became somewhat of a cult icon in the Chicago area. All professional mechanics wanted our products.

Around this time the government decided to crack down on chlorinated solvents. Herdor's was the first in the country to come out with a non-chlorinated brake cleaner, and Herdor's became the first in the country to go non-chlorinated, not using any solvents at all.

Kris started sponsoring motorcycle flat track racers and working in pits. Kris had great luck in bike racing, winning four straight rookies of the year - Brian Valila, Kevin Atherton, Mike Hayl and Scott Stump. Kris was working for Kris Car and Kevin Atherton when they were recruited by Fatry Harley for 2 years. He then left racing for a year and proceeded to come back and work for legendary racers like Ricky Graham and then Jay Springston. Hogwash became very popular with the motorcycle industry.

As sales grew Kris refrained from being a race mechanic and concentrated on sponsoring racers and racing events. He started sponsoring drag racers and stock car racers and Santa Fe Speedway races. Soon he got interested in Team Demo. Hogwash got national attention with the TBS special Master of Distinction. They started getting sales requests from all over the globe, including Australia, Greece and even the Philippines. Kris was not content being solely a race sponsor and soon got together with a team called the The Locomotives and Team Demo. The Locomotives became a dynasty team, winning four national titles in five years and became the first team to go undefeated in the sport. The Speed Channel started a new program called "Lucas Oils on the Edge" which gave Herdor's more world-wide exposure.

Herman eventually retired and brought in a new partner, Paul Blangin. They immediately needed to meet new EPA standards to go national. Kris and Paul immediately come up with new formulas to meet all state and federal EPA standards while keeping the same cutting power and quality and moving Hogwash to a national status.