ALTRINCHAM, UK—John Heaford, founder of JM Heaford, sadly passed away recently. He is survived by his wife Anne, five children, eight grandchildren and one great grandchild.
John founded the business in 1982 with Anne, 25 years after starting his career as an apprentice draftsman at 17 and holding roles in several engineering companies.
After designing and manufacturing proofers for the gravure industry, the firm started to manufacture plate mounting and proofing machines for the flexographic industry using microdots and high-magnification cameras in the early 1990s. There are now more than 5,000 of his machines in place in more than 120 countries around the globe.
Dave Horsman, FTA Hall of Fame member, reports, “John was the first recipient of the European Flexographic Technical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award—similar to our Hall of Fame—in 1988. On two occasions, he was awarded the Queen’s Award for Export, which was personally bestowed on him by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 1987 and in 1995.”
Passionate about his work, he traveled the world visiting customers with agents and made many valued and long-lasting friendships along the way. One of those was Horsman, who recalls, “John signed me to a contract back in 1993 to be their Canadian agent. Canflexographics is still in that role.” He concludes, “John was a great and easy guy to do business with and was absolutely brilliant—I sold more than 100 of his machines in my time.”