INTERESTING STORY

 IMPORTANT NOTE: 

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BOB KECK

TED WILLIAMS

"The story of Bob and Ted"
(The story of how AOP began)

The ALCO paper group purchased Seneca Paper, a paper distributor in Rochester, NY.  One of the divisions within Seneca was a hidden diamond, a small copy machine company called "Kex Copysource" which Bob Keck had started some years ago.  

ALCO had planned to sell Kex, but Ted Edwards studied the financial performance and deduced the copier business had better financial metrics than did the paper business!  Ted finally convinced ALCO to hold on to Kex.  

Management watched Kex and the copier business for about five years!  During that time Ted kept trying to convince ALCO management to consolidate the copier industry.  It took a long time but the facts were so strong and Ted was so persuasive, ALCO purchased Acme Business Products (Earl Benson) in Macon, Georgia…the "Acme" performance was very good, then they purchased "A-Copy" and "Modern", 

Then "all hell broke loose" after Modern they purchased "San Sierra", one of the largest Savin dealers in the country, based in Northern California!  "San Sierra" was not what it was supposed to be and with little or no due diligence ALCO didn't identify the problems until it was too late!  ALCO ended up writing-off $25 million (on a purchase price of $9 million for San Sierra)...needless to say, the Board was not pleased and became concerned about the entire copier business!  

After the San Sierra mess, ALCO hired John Stuart to build a team to consolidate the copier industry while at the same time the paper guys were distancing themselves as much as possible from the copier division. 

John Stuart had been President of Ricoh North America and Royal (now Konica) and had a much different view of the business than that of the paper division!  After 12 months of educating ALCO Management and the Board, they allowed a couple of small acquisitions and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Many may not know the story of "Bob and Ted" but if not for them, there never would have been an AOP…they started it all. 

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