
Tom Fleming, founder of Distribution Management, spent five years of his career selling typewriters for IBM in downtown St. Louis. Missouri. From this experience, Tom recognized the demand for replacement ribbons and in 1972, All-state Business Machines (ABM) was born as a reseller of typewriter ribbons. Tom, the only employee at the time, would go door-to-door among downtown businesses to take orders on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, would return with deliveries on Tuesdays and Thursdays and would prepare and mail invoices on Saturdays.
ABM proved to be a reliable partner within the industry and, with the rapid growth of desktop publishing and business printing, became a source of products for other resellers. This led to the evolution of what is known today as Distribution Management and its subsidiary Supplies Network. In 2010, Tom moved into the role of Chairman handing over the CEO reigns to Sean Fleming who championed the launch of DM Fulfillment Services, the company’s third-party fulfillment division.
It is with great pride that today Distribution Management still reflects the values-based approach set forth by our founder, Tom Fleming. Led by CEO Sean Fleming, President Greg Welchans and our leadership team, those values guide every decision to create a foundation of operational and distribution excellence and reinforce our company culture — agile, creative, collaborative, progressive, and customer-centric.
1972
ABM founded as typewriter ribbon reseller
1979
ABM Federal launched
1991
Supplies Network launched and was awarded Lexmark Tier 1 Distributor Contract
1993
- Awarded HP Tier 1 Distributor Contract
- Survived "great flood" - HQ under 9 ft. of water
1998
Began development of custom operating warehouse management system
1999
Expanded Northeast region reach with new distribution center in Pennsylvania
2002
Moved into new corporate headquarters
2003
Expanded Southern region reach with new distribution center in Texas
2005
- mpsSELECT® Services & Solutions strategy launched
- Expanded Western region reach with new distribution center in California
2011
ABM Federal sold
2012
DM Fulfillment Services launched
2015
- Acquisition of Premier Distribution Management adds Foreign Trade Zone
- Supplies Network expands hardware position with addition of Lexmark BSD authorization