Bob was born with a lance in his hand. Literally.

Born in Springfield, MA and raised in West Springfield, Bob was an only child and grew up very interested in his father's business, always looking to help out in some way.

Bob started working and helping his family out with the business by the time he was about 8 years old. He didn't tackle any crazy jobs because he was still a kid, but he would power wash all of the dirty drums that would come back in from the washbays his father sold and supplied.

Around age 10, Bob started caring more about the way the shop was organized and maintained. He took a lot of it into his own hands. He also began to power wash his family's house around this time.

At the age of 13, Bob started riding along with one of his father's drivers for deliveries and repairs.

At 16, Bob started driving around New England in a pickup truck with a lift gate delivering 55g drums of our soaps to trucking and construction companies that had been set up by his family.

After Bob's parents retired and moved away, he took over the business himself. He continued using the same business practices as his father, doing in person business and demonstrations of the gear and soaps that they sold. With the rise of the internet coming on fast, however, these business practices started to become outdated. Bob had to come up with another way to effectively spread the word about his business.

After making the website, Bob vividly remembers sitting in front of the computer screen waiting patiently for the orders to come in. They didn't come that first day; but the website was a step in the right direction for the Chem-X crew, and they didn't stop there.

With the website created, Bob began learning how to package products and ship them. He also learned how to bottle soaps more efficiently and make labels look nicer.

In the years following his parents' retirement, Bob began to come up with a plan for rebranding and restructuring the business. In this process, Bob renamed the brand from Chemex New England to simply Chem-X.

To build this brand without investors, Bob and his wife Kayla opted to build a shipping container home in the Chem-X warehouse to eliminate personal expenses.

In April of 2017, Bob started making YouTube videos to advertise his business as well. By October 2017, he had the keys to a new warehouse and began moving business there. His goal was eventually to have a wash bay on-site at this warehouse so he could record videos there. This was something they would be able to achieve after three years of being there.

The new warehouse was very barebones upon moving in, and Bob and the team did a lot of work in order for it to become what it is today.

By January of 2020, the construction of the Chem-X wash bay was underway. It took about 8 months to complete the construction.

While the wash bay was being built, Chem-X released Stars + Stripes: The Ultimate Touch Free Two-Step Wash.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bob began gaining traction on social media by creating short-form detailing videos on the then-new platform TikTok, while continuing to post long-form content on YouTube every Friday. As short-form content expanded to Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, he shared the same videos there as well. The content quickly took off, generating over 100 million views, largely because detailing transformations fit perfectly into the rising trend of “oddly satisfying” videos showing dirty surfaces becoming clean and shiny.

Kona was born on November 4th, 2021. She joined the Hoyle family in 2022, and stole their hearts as soon as she came home. She loves to come into the office and hang out with everyone, especially her mom and dad. Her favorite thing in the world is finding a rock stuck in the ground and trying to get it out... immediately. Kona is a sassy girl who flows to her own beat, and she's a wonderful part of the Chem-X team.

As for the future of the company, Bob has a lot of big ideas that could get even more eyes on the Chem-X brand. He wants to streamline order turnaround time, increase his international distributor network, and invent more helpful solutions for the detailing and power washer industries.