01/24/08

Telmar Distributing Company was founded in 1986, in my back bedroom!  I had an idea for an equipment  search program, which later became Topics.  I spent many hours entering telephone company's surplus equipment lists, and developing the first program.  Chris made the first sales calls from that bedroom office, while I made typing noises in the background.

We moved to our first real office in Irvine's Sky Park Circle, with a 1,000 sq ft warehouse.  We soon expanded into next door, and then next door to that.  We also added a larger fourth warehouse a few miles away.   We moved all of this into our new home at 16781 Noyes Avenue, Irvine, where we stayed for many years.  (We did add the building next door as well, for our test labs.)

Our first group of employees included Sue Lowenthal (sales & operations), Gary McMullin (quality),  Mark Manganella (sales, starting with Lois Weyler at our brokerage company, Apics), and Becky Manganella.  Later we added Jerry Constance from Pacific Bell (testing), and Mel Santi also from Pacific Bell (contracts & sales).  Robert Arias ran the warehouse team.  We opened sales offices in Pennsylvania (Eric Masters & Chuck Hoyt) and Sacramento.  We were a small group - maybe 20 to 30 people in all, but with Topics we had sales-per-employee ten times that of our closest competitor!

We became registered for ISO-9002 and TL-9000 quality standards, a big investment in time and effort for a small company.

We developed a good relationship with Allied Communications Equipment Supply, a long-established distributor with a huge inventory.  They were a competitor, and much bigger than Telmar, but our sales were many times theirs, and we helped them sell their inventory.  They were wary of us at first, but then we gave them the ACESHIP program, and they could ship our orders directly to our customers, with our paperwork and labels.  That cemented our relationship.

In 1997 we were short-listed for a sole supply contract with SBC, (Now AT&T)   We put together a team to bid for the contract.  This included myself (proposal writing and computer programs), Gary McMullin (business), Mel Santi (in-your-face sales), and Sandie Jarrett (PowerPoint).   We held a dress rehearsal in an off-site hotel conference room.  Bill Peck (Geneva) and Sidney Yeaman stood in as SBC executives.

We went to St Louis and gave our presentation to SBC.  They liked it so much, they called in their senior managers to listen to the good bits over again!   So we won the contract.  Telmar's sales went from $12 million to over $70 million.

In 1999 I sold most of Telmar to Stonebridge Partners, a New York financial company, and retained a small interest.  We bought Allied Communications Equipment Supply, our closest competitor, in a friendly merger.

Telmar Network Technology now has professional management, 300 employees, sales teams in several countries, a manufacturing arm, and (2005) sales of over $185 million a year.   They recently purchased Comnet Supply, a leading supplier of wireless telecom equipment, and Maya Telecom, in Florida.  Stonebridge has made five add-on company acquisitions.  Telmar now has facilities in Irvine California, Council Bluffs Iowa, Yuma Arizona, Darien Illinois, Sparks Maryland, Annandale New Jersey, Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania, San Angelo Texas, Plano Texas, Dallas Texas, Orlando Florida, Brazil, Mexico, Malaysia, The Netherlands and Hong Kong.   www.telmarnt.com   

In April 2006, Telmar Network Technology was purchased by Warburg Pincus, a New York private equity firm.

These are the early Telmar employees:

My dad (W.G. 'Pat' Kirkup) also came by from time to time to help with junking!   My dad didn't think that what I did in the office - programming and such - was 'real' work, so when he was there I had to work alongside him in the warehouse!

Where are they now?

• Gary McMullin is still with Telmar.

• Sue Lowenthal just left Sonance, a speaker manufacturer.

• Rich Kirkup is the President of Sector Supply, Inc.

• Lois Weyler and Tiffanie Lu are still with Telmar.

• Mark and Becky Manganella are with CTDI.

• Jerry Constance is a quality consultant to Sector Supply.

• Mike Mergen has his own accounting business.

• Chris Kirkup is with Realspace Media, Inc.

• Robert Arias is Operations Manager for Sector Supply.

• Eric Masters and Chuck Hoyt are still with Telmar.

• Bill Boyer owns 2 Guys Productions in Lake Havasu City, Az.

• Mark Neidl is with Lightning Technology, in San Juan Capistrano.

• Linda Farr is a wiring technician with Verizon.

• Mel Santi is retired and living in Las Vegas.

To add your name to this list, .

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