HiH Retrofonts of Naugatuck, Connecticut
Serving six continents from here in the Valley
The Valley is the historic Naugatuck River Valley in Connecticut, U.S.A., running from the Litchfield Hills south to the confluence with the Housatonic River at Derby. The towns along the way include Torrington, Thomaston, Waturbury, Naugatuck, Beacon Falls, Seymour, Ansonia and Derby. Shelton, across the Housatonic from Derby, is generally considered part of the Valley as well.
In the nineteenth century, the Valley was the heart of industrial Connecticut, home of the Brass, Rubber, Chemical and Shipbuilding industries. In 1885, an incredible 90% of the brass produced in this country came from the Valley. Charles Goodyear discovered vulcanization, the process of curing rubber with sulphur, here. In 1950, kids wore Keds, the sneaker produced by the US Rubber Company here. And take a wild guess where Naugahyde, the leather-alternative, got its name.
The Great Depression and Hurricane Diane in 1955 devastated the Valley, precipitating a decline that lasted into the 1980s. The period since then has seen a remarkable recovery. In 2000, the stretch from Naugatuck to Derby was designated the All-American Valley. One more thing: in the Valley, high school football is BIG.
It certainly sounds grandiose for a tiny little business like ours to say that we serve five continents, but it is true. We have customers on every continent except Africa and Antarctica. Of course, our degree of market penetration is a little thin in areas like China and Nepal (read "non-existent"), but we have those "high, apple-pie-in-the-sky" hopes. The amazing thing is that via the power of the world wide web, we reach customers in 48 nations. They are Argentina, Australia, Austria, The Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Gaudeloupe, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom. More than a quarter of our business comes from countries other than our own.
We would like to more countries added to the list, especially from Central Europe. We have finally added Estonia to the list, and hope others will follow. We realize that accented consonants are an issue and are taking a hard look at our character sets. In due time, slower than we would like, but faster than never. At present, Huxley Amore, Petrarka ML, Secession ML and Secession GR ML have the Central European character set. Secession GR ML also has the Greek alphabet. And finally, HUXLEY CYRILLIC has the Cyrillic alphabet.