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Cardone, Solomon & Associates Inc., (CS&A) was launched in July of 1997.
Founders John Cardone and Michael Solomon began working together in July 1979 at the F.Edwin Schmitt Company in Elmont New York. John was actually brought in to the Schmitt Company to replace Mike Solomon who had been tapped to move to Chicago to be employed by the Shure Microphone Company as the then youngest Product Manager in the company's history. John and Mike immediately struck a very close bond. With Mikes growing business background, he took John under his wing and tutored him with the hopes of developing his skills as a young business person.
Over the next ten years, they stayed in touch with each other. They both gained valuable business experience working at different companies, and then reunited in 1990 at German microphone manufacturer beyerdynamic's US office located in Farmingdale NY. While at beyerdynamic, John and Mike were in the position to evaluate manufacturers representatives throughout the North East as well as nationally as a course of normal business. At one point both John and Mike separately began to think about the next chapter in their professional careers. Both were thinking about starting a manufacturers representative firm. So when it was discovered that both were looking down the same path, John and Mike began putting their business plan together.
After careful analysis it was concluded that if another manufacturers rep firm were to be formed, there were many manufacturers that either had no previous representation and were looking to penetrate the US market, manufacturers that had product category redundancy within their existing representative firms product portfolios, or manufacturers reps who's core disciplines were not in sync with what the manufacturer wanted, and had limited choices if they decided that a change was necessary.
Given John's and Michael's background in the microphone business, and the contacts they accumulated over the years, it became clear that they would form a manufacturers rep firm that specialized originally in the professional and commercial audio industry.
It was also decided early on that once the company was launched, the company wouldn't be what the market was used to seeing from the traditional manufacturers representative. So, the mission became to establish a company that conducts itself as a Factory Direct Regional Manager in the region of the North Eastern United States.
They started out slow. It was just the two of them, their Office Manager Priscilla Drake Solomon, and only a few manufacturers. But as time evolved, John and Mike began to prove themselves. Soon, other manufacturers began to approach them and their line card began to grow. Obviously this created the demand to expand. So they hired their first outside sales person in March 1999, and thus began the growth of the CS&A team.
Fast forward to 2010. With over 50 achievement awards presented to CS&A, the company has grown to seven offices covering the North East and a current staff of 7 highly motivated team members. The company has expanded it's line card beyond the audio side with state of the art well established manufacturers in all disciplines in the AV chain (Audio, Video, AV Routing and Switching, Video Conferencing, Digital Signage, Fiber Optic Transport Systems, Video and Computer Controlled Technologies).
CS&A's 2009 line card has evolved into one of the most powerful well balanced independent AV manufacturers portfolio in the industry.
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