It all began in 1949 when Robert J. Goldsmith returned to Chicago after serving in the U.S. Navy. Bob sold typewriter ribbons for The Royal Typewriter Company in downtown Chicago. After several years as top ribbon salesman, Bob was promoted to Typewriter Salesman. Bob was consistently the top sales producer at Royal. In fact, with over 100 months of M.A.D. (Machine A Day), Bob was offered his own dealership. In 1958, Bob opened Gateway Office Machine Company in Hammond Indiana to sell and service Royal Typewriters. In those days the manual typewriter was the office machine of the future. As a new business, Gateway struggled but eventually grew to be a cornerstone of the Northwest Indiana business community. Gateway became a dealer for Victor Comptometer, a Chicago based adding machine manufacturer. As technology progressed, Gateway began to sell electronic calculators by Victor, Sharp and Texas Instruments. As technology progressed further, Gateway added photocopiers and facsimile machines to the product mix. With the advent of personal computers, typewriters became electronic peripherals (that is, daisy wheel printers). In the peak of the memory typewriter era, a top of the line Royal 5040 sold for $2,500.00. Gateway eventually settled on imaging products. Copiers, fax machines, and printers continue to be the Regal/Gateway core offering. In 1982 Regal Business machines opened as a sister company to Gateway, in downtown Chicago. Bob’s two sons, Mark and Richard, graduated from college and joined the family business.

At first, Mark and Richard learned the business from the ground up. Sweeping floors, unloading trucks, and eventually typewriter and calculator repair. Starting in 1982 Mark concentrated on Sales, and Richard did repair work. The business grew steadily over the years. New manufacturers were added. Regal/Gateway was, and still is proud to feature KONICA-MINOLTA, PANASONIC, HEWLETT PACKARD, OKIDATA, and DUPLO suite of office solutions. Today, Bob still services several accounts for Regal/Gateway while Mark and Richard handle the day-to-day administration and management. The company now employs over 60 Sales, Operations, Administration & Management personnel. The average employee has over 5 years of experience at his/her job duties. Some employees have over 20 years experience.

Regal/Gateway was founded on the basis of customer service. Over the past 50 years the steady growth we have enjoyed is a result of this service. The company’s goal is to provide the highest level of customer service available without losing the accessibility of a small company. Our need to grow is tempered by our desire to over-deliver service. We want Regal/Gateway to be large enough to remain competitive in terms of resources but small enough to give that personal touch which has become the calling card of our business. We have enough resources to buy right, but we are small enough to know all of our customers by name. Serving Northwest Indiana, Chicago and all of Chicagoland.

Through the years Regal/Gateway has developed relationships with our clients based on trust, integrity, value, and service. Many of our clients have been with us since our first days in 1958. Hundreds have been with us over ten years. Once a customer starts working with us, they rarely leave. We have clients of all sizes, from one small fax or hundreds of machines throughout the region or country. We are proud of our outstanding reputation in the community, and our relationship with our dealer partners nationwide.