AB&T History

That was when an energetic Westinghouse engineer in Pittsburgh, Fank Conrad,   pioneered the first public radio broadcast from his living room, playing phonograph   songs for his neighbors who listened on homemade radios. As his broadcast gained   popularity, the president of Westinghouse convinced the engineer to move the   broadcast to the company's rooftop in exchange for better equipment and   a stronger signal. Westinghouse stated making radios for the larger audience   and the radio industry was born. That radio station, KDKA, is still broadcasting   and is the oldest operating ratio station in the country.

As radios became popular in Pittsburgh in the 1920's, a huge demand for   radio parts materialized. At about this time, Emmer J Tydings became stranded   without money while in Pittsburgh on a sales trip. The company he worked for   shut down overnight, falling victim to the Depression. With a vendor willing   to supply him, Tydings set up shop there selling radio parts directly to the   public to survive.

As the business thrived   in the 30's, it became the Tydings Electronics Co., and was reported to   have grown to become the "largest electronics parts distributor east of   the Mississippi" until after WWII when Tydings sold the company. Many   a manufacturer rep traveled form Washington, DC, NYC, Philadelphia and beyond   to sell radio parts to Tydings Electronics.

In 1947, when Tydings' son Dick returned from WWII, with a wife in tow   and baby on the way, he came to his father to get a referral for a sales position   in electronics. Dick secured a job with the rep firm Morris Taylor Company,   a major supplier to Tydings Electronics. In 1963, Dick branched out to form   AB&T Sales with partner   Hal Blumenstein (thus the "B&T" name roots) to take advantage   of growing sales in the nascent HiFi business (later the Consumer Electronics   or "CE" business) that Morris Taylor Co. thought was merely a passing   fad.

Early on, AB&T had two big product hits with Harmon Kardon and Dynaco,   two titans of the early HiFi industry. With new vendors like Maxell audio/video   and HiGain CB's, the firm grew larger in the late 60's.

Starting in the 70's, big name vendors like Sanyo, Panasonic, Sharp,   Magnavox, Akai, NEC and others contributed to a long growth period that lasted   into the 80's.

Eventually Dick retired in 1979 and turned the company reigns over to his then   partner, Milt Deines, who continued to successfully grow the company. The next   big change came along when Maxell added Floppy Disk to it's A/V media   line. Retail sales of the floppy disk grew visible enough by 1982 to prompt   an unknown software company named VisiCorp to contact Maxell for advice on getting   their VisiCalc spreadsheet software program out to dealers. AB&T brought   VisiCorp on as a product line just as it was emerging to become the catalyst   in fueling the PC as a general business tool. From that initial success, AB&T   dove deeper into PC and peripheral products sales. With lines like Intel, Maxell,   PFS and others, by 1987 the computer peripherals division matched the consumer   electronics division in annual sales.

Many changes have taken place over the last two decades at AB&T, most notably,   the dramatic consolidation of the dealer base in both consumer electronics and   computer products. AB&T responded early to those changes in 1994 by writing   a new business plan to grow nationally and consolidate the rep business in lock-step   with the retail industry. In 1995 AB&T was the first electronics rep firm   to undertake a national expansion plan by buying up other small rep firms across   the U.S. AB&T's "Best Foot Forward" strategy kept us focused   on expanding successfully only when the opportunity was right.

Ultimately, AB&T purchased firms in Florida, Georgia, Texas, California   and Minnesota. With more successes than failures, the whole of AB&T quickly   became far more powerful that the sum of its parts. This is one of the primary   reasons that AB&T still exist today while the majority of our competitors   have gone out of business. Our legacy of servicing hundreds of "Mom &   Pop Shops" in the Mid-Atlantic region morphed into servicing only a few   dozen national mega-accounts across the nation.

AB&T's decades of accumulated experience also led to the formation   of new business units to take advantage of opportunities emerging in the industry   in the 90's. The first, AB&T Telecom, was deliberately formed as a   follow up to our SoHo warranty contracts business at retailers with GE in the   Mid-90's (i.e., a service contract that is billed monthly for recurring   revenue). In 1998 we introduced Qwest Prepaid Long Distance Calling Cards through   retailers like Circuit City, CompUSA and SuperValue Grocery Stores. However,   when we called on the Office Superstores for these products, they suggested   that we look at offering other business oriented telecom services.

Ironically, our response to the retailers' request led ultimately to   AB&T introducing telecom services not through retailers, but instead through   a dedicated agent partner "channel" that had roots similar to our   past experience of selling computer products through VAR's and System   Integrators. Now AB&T Telecom is one of the fastest growing telecom master   agencies in the business, attracting over 300 resellers nationwide with over   30 carriers and service providers and private label services of our own.

The "next big   thing" at AB&T was the launch of PRI, our design, licensing, and foreign   sourcing and supply chain management company based out of Richmond, VA and Shanghai,   China. With multiple US offices, our PRI operations synchronize sourcing and   supply chain management for US partners seamlessly from across the world in   Shanghai through our Richmond offices. PRI has re-engineered the role of middle-man-facilitator   to a far more efficient level by creating a model that eliminates every last   unnecessary layer of cost. PRI's hyper-efficient direct sourcing-supply   chain model (we call it "speed sourcing") fills a major void that   tier-1 brands and foreign "buying offices" can't address for   national retailers. PRI supplies some of the biggest names in retail electronics   in the US. and more can be learned on our website at www.prispeedsource.com.

Today, AB&T has diversified to the point where we have split the three companies up into separate stand-alone companies with individual missions, and minor common ownership.  AB&T Telecom conducted a "spin-off" from the other companies to form AB&T Telecom, LLC dba/AB&T Telecom in December 2009.  AB&T Telecom has doubled in size in less than a year and a half from that time and has opened additional offices.  We have spearheaded the channel selling of Cloud services and Unified Communications with a major leadership role in these areas. AB&T Telecom anticipates growning more than two-fold again as we approach our 50th Anniversary under the AB&T name in 2013.