EDCO Turns 60 and Introduces New Distribution Partners at ARA Show
EDCO will be introducing its new regional distribution partners at Booth 3227 at the ARA Show in Anaheim, Calif., and will also be celebrating 60 consecutive years of exhibiting. EDCO – Equipment Development Co. – was established in 1959, and ever since the ARA show has been an important staple in spreading the word about its business. Its first exhibit in 1959 helped EDCO become a national brand after its original dual-disc grinder was only available at Rental Tools & Equipment, where EDCO began as a machine development division, in Silver Spring, Md.
At the 1959, co-founder Leo Swan sold 18 dual-disc grinders and worked with other two co-founders John Doran and Ed Harding to fill the orders when he returned home from the show. EDCO has not missed an ARA show since. Swan was inducted into the ARA Hall of Fame in 2006 in Orlando, Fla.
EDCO’s new regional distribution partners will help the company provide enhanced logistics with EDCO equipment now strategically located in many regions. It will also help provide lower shipping costs and pick-up options; expert application diagnosis and technical advice; local access to trained representatives who teach the profitability of EDCO products; a high level of support from EDCO online, over the phone and in person; and the same pricing structure as before.
The new distribution partners include Midstates Distribution Inc., whose sister company Construction Product Sales has represented EDCO for 15 years. Midstates represents North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia.
MTA Distributors, which has been a distributor of equipment and parts to the rental industry and construction markets for 40 years. The company covers Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Montana, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Vermont and Washington.
Big Eight Supply & Tool, an affiliate of EDCO’s long-time representative group Trinity Equipment Solutions. Big Eight began distributing EDCO in January. It covers Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.