About APDmro



Mission Statement
  • APD Inc group of companies delivers the best industrial products defined by the highest value-to-price ratio to its customers via the most innovative operating models and technologies.
Official Authorized 3M Industrial Distributor
  • Although 3M Industrial & Safety Markets Center (3M I&SMC) does not issue a certificate of relationship for the US market. You can find APD Inc listed in various urls on 3M.com under "where to buy". You are also welcome to call +1-800-3MHelps to verify our relationship with 3M I&SMC.
APD's History
  • APD Inc started in March 1998 in the city of Lynwood (10 Miles east of LAX International airport). Initially APD Inc's main business was products for the aerospace metal finishing segment. As major aerospace production started to leave southern California at the turn of the century, APD Inc re-positioned itself to focus on industrial packaging supplies to gain a wider customer base. In 2003, APD Inc was selected to become an authorized 3M distributor. Our product line at the time was centered around box sealing, masking, and filament tapes commonly used for the industry. In 2006, APD purchased a new building in Ontario (Ontario International Airport vicinity), and moved its operations in Feb 2007. However, as housing market on the verge of collapse and the economic downturn became a reality, our business was suffering from lack of focus and differentiation. Our revenue dropped through out 2007 and APD Inc was once again in restructuring its business model. Toward the end of 2007, the management of APD Inc decided to exit the industrial packaging business focus and concentrate on its relationship with 3M and started to hire and train sales and technical specialists in area of bonding, surface modification and other 3M technologies in manufacturing processes.
The Turning Point
  • As the global economy continues to deteriorate in 2008, APD Inc's uniquely focused business model propelled the company to grow exponentially through the economic downturn. Five short years later, APD Inc. became one of the largest independent 3M Industrial Business (later renamed to 3M I&SMC) distributor in the United States. We attributed our success to our concentration in our area of business which resulted in much higher level of expertise and relationship than our competitors in the same industry.
APD Inc Acquires CTI Abrasives & Tools
  • In Sept 2015, APD Inc was fortunate to have the opportunity to acquire CTI Abrasives and Tools in Santa Ana (Our current Orange County Branch). CTI Abrasives & Tools has nearly 50 years of market leading position in Orange County and was the largest Scotch-Brite distributor in southern California. The acquisition of CTI allows our company to gain years of advanced industry knowledge and practices to better service our customers.
APD Inc Forms Data Management Center in Taiwan
  • Seeing the advancement in information technology and how we can augment our capabilities to deliver products information and e-commerce solutions into the future; in 2017, APD Inc formed our Data Management Center in Taiwan to leverage local talents in designing our next generations of information delivery infrastructure and e-commerce systems. Our operation in Taiwan today boasts a team of young professionals in their early 20's, experimenting and designing highly efficient systems to deliver superior values and transaction experience to our customers.
Calion Manufacturing, a Wholly Owned Subsidiary
  • After 5 years of planning, on January 1st 2017 APD Inc formed a wholly owned subsidiary Calion Manufacturing to improve and innovate the traditional product delivery and selection process in certain areas of our businesses. Today, APD group of companies is the only integrated supplier in the industry. After a series of major capital investments in equipment and training, Calion Manufacturing is the only Norton approved and supported material processing facility in southern California. Calion is also one of the two VSM approved and supported material process facility in southern California. Our abrasives operators and management is training at VSM's US Subsidiary in O'Fallon, Missouri. Calion Manufacturing's tapes and adhesive operations also process 3M and products from other leading manufacturers used in bonding and surface protection in a broad spectrum of industries. Our R&D team continues to develop new innovative products to meet our customers' challenges. We will begin to roll out these products on our site some time toward the end of 2019 or early 2020 as we await to complete a round of plant expansion to accommodate more materials and equipment. Our distribution-manufacturing hybrid design helps us to be able to efficiently transform market demand into product realities.
APD Inc Selects Acumatica as the Backbone of Operating System
  • Just in Jan 2019, APD Inc has transitioned to its new operation system from Acumatica. We are deploying a sophisticated, browser and cloud-based system with our data securely stored in Amazon's AWS data center. Our substantial initial and on-going investment in the system has ambitious goals of streamlining the entire group's business processes, centralizing interaction with customers for greater accountability, increasing transparency and efficiency in transacting with customers and vendors, automating time-consuming and repetitive tasks, and mandating a minimum level of service that our customers can count on. For the rest of 2019 and on, APD Inc will integrate and customize additional capabilities and features into our Acumatica system and we will be sure to communicate these changes to you as they happen.

I want to thank you for becoming and staying a customer of APD Inc, your support fuels our desire to innovate.

Sincerely,


James
President and General Manager, APD Group of companies