Koestner Office Products, Inc. was established August 1, 1974 by Harley Koestner.
The company started by selling Oce' and Minolta copiers. In 1976 K-O-P-I took
on the Sharp line of equipment. In addition, K-O-P-I sold and still services
the Muratec brand of facsimiles along with Standard Digital Duplicators.
Today K-O-P-I is the Authorized
Dealer for Lanier Brand equipment including copiers, digital
imaging, printers, scanners, digital duplicators, faxes,
wide format, and color systems. In 1978 K-O-P-I started
their own leasing company. This allows customers who lease
equipment to communicate with one company for all their needs
on equipment, service and supplies.
K-O-P-I is a family run business
and one of the few independently owned dealerships around
today. That independence gives us the flexibility that larger
conglomerates have lost. It is a comfort to know that a personal
touch can still be found today at K-O-P-I, even in
today's increasingly impersonal world. Harley accounts the
growth of the business, which now covers 85 counties in the
state of Missouri and the northern part of Arkansas, to hard
work and dedicated people. He believes that being fair and
honest with both customers and employees pays off.
The Lanier organization has always been on the forefront of innovation, with a focus on understanding customer needs. From its beginnings as The Lanier Company in Nashville, Tennessee, the Lanier brand remains committed to meeting and exceeding customer expectations.
In 1934, the Lanier brothers J. Hicks, Thomas, and Sartain founded a distribution company for Ediphones, a dictating system invented by Thomas Edison. Over the next decade, the Lanier brothers expanded their business into 12 states, adding the popular Gray Audograph machine to its product line-up. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, The Lanier Company continued to redefine its business, becoming an independent distributor for 3M Corporation’s Duplicating, Microfilm, Visual and Background Music Division.
The Lanier Company became Lanier Business Products in 1967. By 1970, Lanier Business Products expanded distribution to all 50 states, thanks to the Lanier brothers’ keen eye for strong partnerships, strategic decision-making and attentiveness to serving the needs of their customers.
Enter the Copier
By 1980, Lanier Business Products began distributing 3M’s copiers nationwide and established itself as a major player in the industry. Over the course of the next five years, Lanier Business Products experienced several changing of the guards as it was acquired by Harris Corporation in 1983. Harris Corporation and 3M formed the Harris/3M joint venture in 1985. During this time, the joint venture adopted the mantra that guides Lanier dealers today providing advanced document management solutions that are tailored to customers’ unique business needs. In 1989, the Harris/3M venture was renamed Lanier Worldwide, Inc., and introduced the industry’s first facsimile unit with light-emitting diode printing technology. Just two short years later, Lanier Worldwide introduced a full line of plain paper fax solutions.
In 1993, on the heels of the introduction of the company’s first duplicating device, Lanier Worldwide completed an ambitious reorganization to provide better customer service support. The reorganization allowed the company to focus on innovation as it launched its digital multifunction product (MFP) in 1994 and digital color copier in 1996.
Lanier Today
In April 2007, Lanier Worldwide, Inc. was dissolved and the Lanier brand unveiled. The restructuring brought legacy Lanier dealers and former Gestetner dealers together for the first time to form a more powerful organization. In doing so, the strengthened brand formed an agile, competitive, solutions-focused sales channel. The creative strategy for the brand was born out of Lanier’s focus on customer understanding and industry-leading equipment and Gestetner’s local market knowledge and heritage of "getting it done" for customers. As a result, the brand launched a new, dealer-focused advertising campaign and tagline "Lanier Gets It", which is still a large part of Lanier’s identity today.
The present-day Lanier brand is not unlike what the Lanier brothers first envisioned in 1934. More than 70 years later, the brand is still as focused as ever on technology and innovation with an appreciation that the customers’ needs are paramount to the success of the business. Lanier’s legacy of satisfaction and unparalleled distribution power with manufacturing and financial strength create a brand that stands out in the competitive marketplace and is sure to be a major player in the document management industry for years to come.
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