About advlaser
Advantage Laser Products is a manufacturer of laser printer supplies and check printing supplies, including: MICR toner cartridge, check paper, micr fonts and remanufactured toner cartridges. We’ve been in business since 1987 and we’re based in Atlanta, Georgia. We’re not one of these virtual companies you find on the internet. We actually stock everything you see on our website. While we may drop ship the odd toner cartridge, most products are manufactured and stocked in our Atlanta warehouse.
Our Story
Our business started in the back storage room of Campbell’s Office Products in Tuscaloosa back in November of 1987. My partner Brian Chaney and myself (Marvin Masson) were fresh out of college, Brian from University of Oklahoma and I from the University of Alabama. We had tons of energy and we were ready to strike it out on our own. Originally we were “Advantage Publishing” doing laser typesetting with a Macintosh SE with a black and white 7″ screen and an Apple LaserWriter Plus. We were using toner cartridges at a staggering rate. We investigated having our cartridges remanufactured to cut down our costs. One thing led to another and we found ourselves in the business of toner cartridge remanufacturing in February of 1988. Back then the business was very simple, as there were really only two laser printer engines we worked with SX and CX. Replacement cartridge parts were non-existent, so the only real supply we needed was toner.
From the start we “remanufactured” our cartridges properly and fully dissembled each cartridge. Back then “drill-n-fill” operations were quite common, and certainly contributed to giving our industry a bad reputation. As time went by more laser printer came out and our processes had to become much more sophisticated.
We picked up some good accounts early, including Boeing, McDonald Douglas and the University of Alabama (roll tide!). We began to operate on a nationwide basis advertising in PC Magazine, PC World and Publish. The magazines gave us national exposure and really gave us a solid base. We still have many customers that we picked up in the early 90’s.
In 1990 we started working with MICR toner for check printing. This niche market turned out to be a good area for us, as quality is very important in the check printing world. 1990 was also the year we decided to open an Atlanta office. We figured a large city would provide a good local base of customers.
In 1991 John Miller joined us as a salesman for MICR toner. John had recently left Westcorp one of the MICR toner software pioneers. In 1992 John became a partner in Advantage and really improved our sales and customer service.
In 1997 we purchased a 15,000 sq. ft. building to host our toner cartridge manufacturing. We’re still there and the space we once thought we could never use, is pretty much full.
Since then our business has grown and grown. We’ve got a great base of loyal customers and business is good. We haven’t forgotten the customers that helped us get there.
More to come…
