Avionics News April 2014 - 34

WHOLESALE PERSPECTIVE
Continued from page 32

equipment, they decided to start a
company to do it full time. Stuck
for a name, according to Lansberg,
they combined their first names, and
EDMO was born in 1971 with two
employees and 1,000 square feet at
Burbank Airport.
Ed bought Mo's share in the late
1970s, and Tim Gump and Fred
Lopez joined Lansberg as coowners in 1991, two years before
EDMO moved from California to
Washington. Moving several times as
its needs grew, today's 43 employees
work in the 30,000-square-foot
Spokane facility the company built in

1993, according to Jeff Christensen,
president.
When starting the company,
"we had no great
plans," Lansberg said.
Securing the second-tier
distributorship for King
Radio made it viable;
increasing King sales by
reaching out to smaller
shops was the mission.
In the late 1970s, King
disbanded its distribution network
and worked directly with dealers.
Combined with the demise of
GI Bill flight training, Lansberg
recalled, "that really put a dent in
sales; 1978, '79, '80, those were the
survival years."

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34

avionics news

*

april

2014

EDMO branched out to
government and military sales, and
two employees with the requisite
demeanor for General
Services Administration
and military requirements
attend to it full time,
according to Lansberg.
In the mid 1980s,
EDMO computerized its
operations, "and about
20 years later we got
it to work right," said Lansberg,
chuckling. The proprietary software
system, maintained by a five-person
IT department, not only tracks
30,000 parts, it is integrated with
EDMO's dynamic secure website.
This system provides a wealth of
data that helps identify emerging
product and sales needs that can be
conveyed to customers in person and
electronically.
Ultimately, EDMO's strength
lies in its employees, a team that
works for the universal goal of
customer satisfaction, according
to Christensen. It includes a DAR
and quality assurance accreditation
for ISO 9001 and AS9120A. "We
want to be the aviation avionics
supermarket ... the place where
customers can meet all their needs
with one call."
That call can come from anywhere.
Seeing a global future, EDMO
opened facilities in Australia in 2001
and Brazil in 2010, partnering with
companies located there. In 2012, it
opened a wholly-owned facility in
Shanghai, China. And it is representing
global companies like Trig Avionics
located in the United Kingdom.
"Drones also interest us,"
Lansberg said. "We're not sure how
we'll fit in there, but it seems there
are going to be a tremendous number
of these things flitting around." q
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