Shefler-Kahn Company was established in 1938 by George Shefler. Herb Kahn joined the company in 1947 and a partnership was formed in 1948. In the middle of the 1950's, with the advent of increased localized manufacturing facilities, the company started to grow, both in sales volume and personnel. Shefler-Kahn is a financially operationally stable representative company having a broad line of experience in many products. We continue to introduce many major and new types of products in this area. A number of the companies we represent have been with us for many years.
        Shefler-Kahn Company is now in its 70th year of business and under the third generation of management. This is part of the overall plan to maintain the marketplace continuity and to ensure a sincere effort for continued growth. While the company is now 70 years old, we think of ourselves as still in our infancy as the industry and area we serve continue to change.
        As our marketplace has changed, the product mix and goals of our company also changed. In the early days, we were primarily military and electrical, as well as electronic components, because we had a limited marketplace. As our marketplace has grown, we have gotten out of the electrical phases of the business to put our emphasis on electronic manufacturing and distribution, both commercial and military.
       The New Mexico / El Paso area has produced good volume and showed steady growth since 1965. Seeing a trend toward more manufacturing in Mexico, we changed our coverage in 1989 to increase the frequency of El Paso coverage from the Tucson office. This increased coverage has shown very positive results, and we expect this growth to continue.  We experienced similar growth on the Arizona border, and subsequently opened our Tucson office in 1995. Our commitment to the border business is significant.
       With our philosophy on the continuity of the marketplace, we believe we are in the business for the long term. Our commitment is to give our principals a consistency of penetration that does not vary with business conditions or changes in sales staff, either on our part or theirs. We feel that the managers and owners of Shefler-Kahn Company will be able to continue the sales growth of the past, and look forward to adding your firm to the other fine organizations we serve.