A History of Kardex Systems, Inc.

The Rand Company

The history of Kardex Systems starts in 1898 when James H. Rand, Sr., introduced the Visible Ledger for sale to businesses. Over the next 10 years he constantly improved the product while also expanding his markets across the United States. In 1908 James H. Rand, Jr., after graduating from Harvard, joined his father's firm, now called the Rand Corporation as sales manager.

James Rand., Jr., soon became dissatisfied with the efforts made by the company in developing visible equipment, for up to this time most of the effort of the Rand Corporation had been devoted to the Visible Ledger line of products. He proposed that visible records be housed in steel cabinets, later called Kardex cabinets. This suggestion seemed too radical to the more conservative board of directors and as a result he resigned.

The American Kardex Company

With $10,000 he had borrowed, Mr. Rand, Jr., organized the American Kardex Company, located in Herkemer, NY, in 1915 and proved his plans were practical. As of 1921 Kardex cabinet annual sales totaled more than a million dollars.

The Rand Kardex Merger

Between 1915 and 1925, the two Rands -- father and son -- were great business rivals. The success of the American Kardex Company had led the Rand Company to adopt a similar type of products, and both firms had gone their separate ways. In the early part of 1925, James Rand, Sr., and James Rand, Jr., reconciled their differences and agreed to merge their two large firms into one great organization. This merger took place on April 1, 1925, and the firm was called the Rand Kardex Company.

Index Visible

In New England just such a product had been manufactured for a number of years. The product, known as Index Visible, was invented in 1908 by Professor Irving Fisher of Yale University. He patented the product in 1912 and began manufacturing it in a small plant. Mr. Rand, Jr., decided that Index Visible would be a valuable addition to his company's service, so on July 1, 1925, Index Visible was merged with the Rand Kardex Company.

Rand Kardex Bureau, Inc.

Library Bureau was founded in 1875 by Melville Dewey, Librarian of the State of New York. Library Bureau demonstrated so conclusively the superiority of the card system over bound books and loose leaf records that it experienced tremendous growth, and its sales representatives gained an unparalleled reputation for their knowledge of systems and systems selling. Library Bureau also was a pioneer in providing unique services to business firms. These services included filing, indexing, and analyzing. On November 1, 1925, the Rand Kardex Company and Library Bureau merged to form the Rand Kardex Bureau, Inc. This merger brought the two undisputed leaders in their respective fields together into one company.

The Safe Cabinet Company

With a type of record system for every business requirement, both visible and vertical, the next step in the development of Remington Rand was to add equipment to protect valuable business records from fire. This came about with the merger of the Safe Cabinet Company, located in Marietta, Ohio, on January 1, 1926.

The Safe Cabinet company was a pioneer and leader in the record protection field. Safe Cabinet products were scientifically tested. The first pre-cast oven dried monolithic type safe was built, and the Safe Cabinet Company was the first firm to apply for and receive Underwriter's Laboratories labels. Safe Kardex was built now for the first time. Visible records could be protected from fire. Then safe files were made which protected records housed in filing cabinets from fire.

The Remington Company

Oldest of the founding firms of Remington Rand is E. Remington & Sons, a manufacture of sewing machines and farm implements. In 1873 Christopher Sholes, who developed the first practical typewriter, interested E. Remington & Sons in manufacturing his typewriter. As a result, the first commercial typewriter, the Remington Number 1, was introduced in 1873. By 1913 the name of the firm was changed to the Remington Typewriter Company.

Remington Rand, Inc.

In 1927 Remington Rand, Inc., was formed by combining the Remington Typewriter Company and the Rand Kardex Bureau, Inc.

During the same year the new company took over the Dalton Adding Machine Company which had in 1903 introduced the first 10-key adding machine. Tabulating machines were added to the new firm's line of products during 1927 when the Powers Accounting Machine Company was purchased. It was during this time that the first electromechanical filing machines were introduced, the Lektriever and Kardveyer, in the early 1950's..

The Sperry Rand Corporation

In 1955 the Sperry Rand Corporation was formed by the merger of the Sperry Corporation, makers of Naval and commercial electronics, with Remington Rand, Inc.

Kardex Systems, Inc.

By 1978, the Sperry Rand Corporation was comprised of the following companies: Univac, New Holland, Remington Rand Systems, Remington Rand Machines, Sperry Vickers, Sperry Aerospace, Ford Instrument Company, & Remington Shaver. The total number of employees exceeded 75,000 worldwide. The Aarque Management Corporation, based in Jamestown, NY, purchased the Remington Rand Systems division from Sperry. Kardex Systems, Inc., was chosen as the new company name due to its long heritage in the filing systems area.

In 2003 Kardex Systems, Inc. was acquired by RACK Enterprises, Inc. (" RACK "), a Pennsylvania-based company. Ronald J. Miller, owner and Chairman at Kardex and his family have been associated with Kardex Systems and Remington Rand, for two generations as Remington top management and Kardex distributors in Pennsylvania and Florida trading under the name REM Systems, INC. Miller also owns REM Automation & Custom Engineering, Inc. (REM Automation"), located in Baltimore, Maryland that specializes in factory automation, which includes ambient and refrigerated automated storage and retrieval systems, robotics, laser and motion integration. Miller also owns Storagecraft, Inc., a distributor of steel lockers.

Kardex Systems, Inc., is the leading manufacture of automated storage and retrieval solutions for many applications, ranging from filing systems to material handling. Kardex also develops records/Parts inventory management software and provides in house customer support. Trademarked name brands include, Kompakt, movable shelving, Titan vertical lifts, Lektriever, Kitchen~Triever and Industriever vertical carousels, Victor filing systems, Colorscan file folders, as well as, 27 other Trademarks filed in as many as 29 countries.