Demco history

Born in Minneapolis on Nicolet Island, Bassett graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1914 after attending the Jefferson School in Charlottesville, Virginia, and New Jersey's Lawrenceville Preparatory School.

The new company starts off under auspicious circumstances, as the plant is ideally and completely equipped for the manufacture of high-class special machinery and now has enough business booked to keep it busy for a long time; in fact, it is at present operating two shifts." (Quote from 1920)

However, Norman D. "Smiley" Bassett, who purchased DEMCO in 1931, has been credited as DEMCO's founding father.

Fertilizer application equipment was one of his first agricultural products. It all began in the corner of an implement dealership in 1950.

Alesco was founded in 1961 as the Missionary Society of St Paul.

1965: A warehouse and production facility is established in DeForest, Wisconsin.

One of the most important developments in DEMCO's history occurred in 1968, when John E. Wall was named president.

DEMCO's sales for fiscal year 1971 totaled $5.8 million, while the larger Banta had recorded sales of nearly $40 million in the first three quarters of calendar year 1971.

1972: Norman Bassett retires as chairman, and DEMCO becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Menasha, Wisconsin-based George Banta Co., Inc.

1978: President John Wall leads a successful leveraged buyout of DEMCO.

In 1987, the company's warehouse in DeForest underwent another expansion, increasing in size to 133,000 square feet.

By this time, about 35 percent of DEMCO's sales were attributable to schools. It also was in 1988 that DEMCO was preparing to relocate its headquarters from the location on Fordem Avenue to a new, two-story, 42,000-square-foot facility at Forest Run and Hayes Roads.

In March 1989, DEMCO announced that Greg M. Larson was its new president.

In the May 1993 issue of In Business, Wall said: "There were 24 people at the closing downtown, including all the vice-presidents from Banta, and they were saying, sotto voce, down at the end of the table, 'They'll never make it.

By 1996, DEMCO's computer system also included some 200 traditional PCs that employees used to access productivity software like word processing and spreadsheet applications.

In 1997, DEMCO strengthened its audio book program when it found that libraries were doubling or tripling their budgets for such media.

1998: Ed Muir is appointed as DEMCO's president.