Smith Corona: your one-stop shopping center for branded home office products - Company Profile

Discount Store News, Jan 3, 1994

For over 100 years, consumers have known and trusted Smith Corona, the No. 1 brand name in typewriters and PWPs. Recent cosumer research(*) has shown Smith Corona to be one of the most highly rated office product brand names in the U.S.

Over the past year, Smith Corona has literally reinvented itself,, developing a comprehensive global strategy that has, in turn, produced significant international joint ventures and partnerships, adopted leading-edge technology in its new international plants, and entered new product categories, offering one of the most comprehensive lines of branded office products in the world.

Among the new products are a full line of highly affordable thermal fax machines, with more advanced models coming soon; personal laminators and supplies; inkjet and high resolution transfer printers; personal labelers and label printers; a full line of nationally branded printer and typewriter ribbons; branded fax, printing and labeling supplies; calculators; a new line of affordable, high quality home office furniture, and of course, Smith Corona's industry-leading lines of typewriters and personal word processors.

Put together, they comprise one of the world's most comprehensive collections of branded home office equipment, peripherals and supplies--your one-stop shopping center for the booming small business and home office market, as well as for the home and student use.

Bill Henderson, President and COO, Smith Corona Corporation, commented that "Smith Corona understands the mass market and today's consumer.

"We have been one of the field's major suppliers working closely with major retailers as their businesses expanded. Throughout its history, Smith Corona has been committed to the consumer as well as the retailer, and that commitment is stronger than ever.

"Now, with a far wider selection of highly saleable products, the new Smith Corona can serve all of its markets even better, offering a full line of consumer-tested, nationally branded products in one of the mass market's fastest growing categories, and applying a respected, well-known brand name to all of these products."

The Technology Leader

John Cutrone, SVP Sales and Marketing, Smith Corona Corp. sees "a big role for the company in the future of home offices, especially in terms of technological innovations that translate directly to user benefits.

"No one knows the small office and home office like Smith Corona. Over the past 100 years, the company has specialized in communications and information needs, from a teenager's first typewriter to sophisticated word processors for business use.

"And each year, Smith Corona refines and develops its product line to stay in the forefront of small business, home office and consumer needs, consistently innovating and, when a need arises, entering new product areas."

In recent years, the company has introduced quiet, low-impact printing in its personal word processors, typewriters and printers, to cut down on the ambient noise in small and home offices. Its personal word processors are now able to share data with desktop computers. They are now PC compatible with WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3 conversion, database management and spreadsheet capabilities, user-friendly graphic menus, and desktop reference programs. Typewriters fit every budget, but at the upper end PWPs are highly sophisticated machines offering a variety of typefaces, expanded text memory, and even dual Spanish/ English language capabilities.

The same concern for quality and technological leadership has been applied to the company's newest lines, like handheld calculators, easy-to-use label printing systems, streamlined and fully-featured fax machines, and versatile and convenient laminators for personal and business use.

With plants in four countries, Smith Corona is positioned for worldwide growth and expansion and will continue to bring its global consumers and retailers the leading edge in office products.

Smith Corona's Global Vision

A Message from Lee Thompson, Chairman and CEO, Smith Corona Corporation

The future of the mass market is on the rise internationally. Most of today's top retailers, from Sears to Wal-Mart to Staples to Kmart and Costco, are now operating in Europe, Canada, Latin America, Asia, the Pacific Rim and the Caribbean.

We at Smith Corona anticipated this change in the retail climate, establishing long-term strategic alliances with international partners, building production plants in four countries, setting up sales organizations and warehousing on three continents, and restructuring our product line to better leverage Smith Corona's internationally respected brand name.

It is clear that tomorrow's winners, both retailers and suppliers, will be those who are prepared to become global players. We must not only think globally, but act globally as well. The days of restricted trade are over, and Smith Corona is prepared for the new world economic order.

The new Smith Corona is better positioned now more than ever to serve the needs of all our customers, including the power retailers who are quickly becoming international forces to reckon with. Our worldwide organization was established specifically to aid us and our retail customers in understanding the differing needs of individual continental and overseas markets, and to react to the needs of a wide spectrum of consumers.