Kent Manufacturing history

Kent Electronics was established in 1973 by Morrie Abramson and James Corporron.

By April of 1982, Kent was generating 80 percent of its $8.6 million in sales from selling its broad line of electronics products to the oil service industry.

In 1983 the company expanded into contract manufacturing and established K*TEC Electronics in Houston as a wholly owned subsidiary.

Kent's geographic expansion since 1986 had been dramatic, but it was also the result of a disciplined, orderly expansion plan.

Kent Datacomm was formed as a wholly owned subsidiary in 1987 to offer a broad range of equipment, products, and services to the end-user in the growing voice and data communications aftermarket.

As demand increased, a separate division, K*Power, was set up in 1989 to market and manufacture the K*Power line of power sources.

A further geographic expansion took place in January 1990, as Kent Datacomm entered the Midwest market with a center in Chicago.

Kent moved to become a national distributor and manufacturer in its specialty electronics field when it negotiated an option agreement on April 4, 1991, to acquire Shelley-Ragon, Inc., an electronics distributor located in St Paul, Minnesota.

In 1993 it strengthened its position as a single source for the networking needs of its customers by expanding its offerings to include intelligent products such as hubs, routers, bridges, and modems.