A brief history of Andrews Electronics By Bruce W. McCalley

The organization now known as Andrews Electronics began as a branch of the Fred S. Dean Company that began as a hardware store in 1919, located in Long Beach, California. When in the early 1920s radio was still in its infancy, hardware stores began handling radio parts and supplies for the hobbyists who made their own sets, and Dean was no exception. Eventually the company became more involved with the radio parts business and the hardware was discontinued.

The Burbank branch, first located at 919 N. Victory Blvd. in Burbank, California, opened about 1950 in a small store of about twenty-five by 125 feet floor space. The manager was Andrew (Andy) J. Futchik. Andy had worked for Fred Dean before the war and had been recently employed by Roy Shelley, owner of Shelley Radio, a parts distributor located in Westwood, California. Andy and Fred Dean planned a small operation designed to supply radio and TV parts to the dealers, and also parts to the industrial trade, in the San Fernando Valley. The policy was wholesale only; no sales to the general public or to the amateur radio hobby. Part of the plan was to offer same-day delivery to service shops throughout the valley. A Plymouth station wagon was purchased for the deliveries. Industrial sales were made through sales persons in that field (names unknown to this writer) while the one dealer outside salesman was a man named Bill Keeler (brother of Ruby Keeler, wife of Al Jolson).

Andy Futchik at the counter at the Burbank store. The cabinet at his rear is one of the card file systems which allowed quick and easy location of parts.

The manufacturer's lines carried were, in part, RCA, Mallory, Triad Transformers, Amphenol, Ohmite, and numerous other brands then common in the industry. In those days the sales of receiving tubes was by far the greatest volume of business with the service trade, and the RCA tube line was the preferred brand. RCA tubes, a broad general line of service parts, and fast delivery made the operation successful from the very beginning. The wholesale-only policy appealed to the service trade as well, and considerable loyalty to the company by its customers resulted.

As the business grew, Fred Dean purchased a plot of land at 1500 W. Burbank Blvd. in Burbank and had a much larger building erected. This building had approximately 50 by 100 feet of floor space, split into two equal-size rooms. The main entrance room was for general merchandise, office staff, and the sales counters. The second room was for storage of large items such as picture tubes, TV antennas, etc. The move to the new building was made in 1952.

By this time the staff had grown. Betty Nelson was the office staff of one, Gus Calta and Dick Pierce were the inside assistants. A man named Charley made the deliveries, and Andy did the ordering of parts in addition to answering the phone, helping customers, and filling orders.

Irv Tjomsland (L) and Anyy Futchik. Irv became the firms outside sales manager (after Bruce McCalley was hired) and was warmly welcomed by customers because of his service experience and ability to help the servicemen with difficult TV repair problems. Irv left the company in the early 1950s to work for Triand Transformer.    Walt Lessing and Fred Dean. Walt was the RCA representative. In the background is Jerry Carne, RCA's Field Engineer.    A group of Dean's (Long beach store) employees behind the Long Beach store. Not all are known but the third from the left is Howard McConnahay; then Andy Futchik and Leroy Keith. These three men became the owners of the Burbank operation which was renamed Andrews Electronics. In later years Anyd bought the interests of Howard and Keith and became sole owner of Andrews.

Andy hired Irving Tjomsland as his assistant in 1952. Irv had been in the service business in Burbank and was one of the best in the business. His specialty was in the converting of the small-screen TV sets to use the larger picture tubes which were appearing on the market. Later that year Irv and Andy hired this writer, who was also in the TV service business, working for Telec Television in Sherman Oaks. About a month later Chuck Gerlach, a salesman for another distributor, was hired for inside sales work. Chuck stayed with the company for about thirty years, retiring in the early 1980s.             Irv assigned me the job of selecting RCA service parts for inventory. At that time the only place you could buy replacement parts for an RCA radio or TV was from the distributor, Leo J. Meyberg, in Los Angeles, and our thought was that having a local supply would make our operation even more appealing. The idea was frowned on by most of the competitors in our field, and even the people at RCA, due to the vast number of such parts and the relatively limited market for them. Our having experience in the repair field, and knowing what seemed to fail most often, enabled us to select the items with some idea of the demand. In addition we developed a system in which these parts could be quickly found by the relatively inexperience help we had. Dealers almost always asked for a part by its description and the model number of the set; never by the part number. The system worked well and over the next few years we added General Electric and Zenith parts to the many general parts lines we carried. In the early 1950s, reflecting the changes of the times, the company name was changed to Deans Electronics. In addition to being a parts supplier to the service trade, Deans (Burbank) devoted time and money in educational programs for its customers. Irv Tjomsland became the company's outside representative and with his technical knowledge helped many service shops in solving difficult repair problems. With the coming of color television, Irv and "Pete" Peterson, an RCA Service Company technician, converted an RCA 1949-era TV chassis to receive color broadcasts. Being an RCA distributor, we were able to purchase the color parts and picture tube for the project. When NBC first began broadcasting in color, we had an open house for our customers so that they could see the first color broadcast. This converted receiver was quite massive and became known as the "Iron Monster." It was later converted to a larger picture tube and used as a teaching tool for our customers. It was eventually donated to a local servicemen's association.

About 1955 Andy left the company to work for an industrial electronics supply firm. Irv had moved to another firm (Triad Transformer) so I was now the manager. At the time Andy left, two local competitors opened business in the Valley. While not offering anywhere near the variety of parts we did, they did offer receiving tubes at a greater discount, as well as same-day delivery. Consequently we lost some of the tube and general parts business. My claim to fame is that under my management, sales declined sharply, largely because of this competition.

Fred Dean offered Andy, as well as Howard McConahay, the assistant manager, and Leroy Keith, the office manager, of the Long Beach store, the Burbank operation, and was willing to take a note for t he balance due for the business. These three became co-owners of the Burbank store. Andy returned to Burbank, about a year after he had left, and the name was then changed to Andrews Electronics. The staff began working on a design for a new company logo and after a number of suggestions we settled on the one shown here:

Over the next decade or so, the services we offered regained the lost business and eventually the competition lessened and ultimately ceased to exist. As the business grew, additional outside salesmen were hired, as well as more delivery trucks and drivers. Industrial sales were discontinued as Andrews became more and more involved in supplying the radio/TV service industry.

Even before the age of computers we developed systems and became so efficient at inventory control that we were better suppliers of these manufacturer's parts than the main factory-authorized distributors in Los Angeles.

Walter Heuman, Sales Manager at Andrews. Walt retired in 1991.

In 1960 Andy hired another salesman, Walter Heuman. Walter had been working as a technician for a TV service business in Glendale. He was hired to gain new customers, many of whom the other salesmen had either never contacted or had given up as a waste of time. Walter turned out to be a better salesman than any of the others and in a relatively short time became the top salesman in the company. As Andrews grew, Walter became general sales manager and held this position until he retired in 1991. Due to the growing inventory, in the early 1960's, another twenty-five foot addition had been added to the Burbank Blvd. store but with the many added lines space became a real problem. Early employees Gus Calta and Dick Pierce had moved on and others were hired as business grew. A few of these people are still with the company. In the 1970s Panasonic and Sony parts and accessories were added. In time Andrews grew so successful that we were offering better and quicker service than the factory-branch distributors in parts availability and ultimately replaced them as the primary suppliers.

In 1972 I retired from Andrews and Andy hired Harry (Tordy) Acker as my replacement. Hiring Tordy was without a doubt the best move made by the company. Had I not left, he might not have been hired and the story from this point on would probably have been a bit different. Tordy developed into a better manager of the business than I would have ever been, and even surpassed Andy Futchik as a manager. It was not long before Tordy was given all but full control of the company, while Andy assumed a secondary role.

During this period the note to Fred Dean was paid off and still later Andy bought Howard and Keith's interest and became the sole owner. Later Walter Heuman and Tordy Acker were given the opportunity to purchase stock in the company. Under Tordy's management, in 1982, a move was made to Allen Avenue in Glendale. This building was about three times the size of the Burbank building but in just a few years it, too, became crowded.

Andrews Glendale building

In 1988 still another move, now out of the Valley to an industrial site in Santa Clarita was made, to a much larger building. The new building had about 50,000 square feet of floor space. There were now a number of separate rooms for various offices, a meeting and lunch room, an accounting department, and a large area for a good number of order desks. The number of employees grew to about 100 by the year 2000.

Many of the manufacturers Andrews carried in the early days are no longer around. These have been replaced by more consumer product parts. Andrews now carries. in addition to those listed earlier, parts for JVC, Quasar, Sharp, Aiwa, Technics, Toshiba, and many others.

Sales have long ago grown from the San Fernando Valley and nearby areas to nation-wide. Andrews Electronics in now the largest supplier of service parts in the United States, and probably in the world.

Andrews Electronics Today From the Andrews Electronics Web Site

Harry "Tordy" Acker, Owner-Manager of Andrews Electronics		Andrews Santa Clarita building
Chuck "CD" Dominic, with Andrews since the Burbank location		Joe Andrews (no relation), also with the firm since the Burbank era
Partial view of the Order Desk area		Andrews Electronics had its beginnings in 1950, starting from what seemed to be a most adequate plant in Burbank, to serve the Radio/Television repair industry in California's growing San Fernando Valley. It was the first independent distributor in the area to stock OEM replacement parts and, to this day, is still expanding the number of available lines.

The demands on the young company forced a move to larger quarters in a very short time, and even those new facilities had to be repeatedly enlarged over the following 30 years. In 1982 Andrews found itself occupying a 23,000 square foot building to accommodate its expansion. A significant step was again taken in 1988 when the firm relocated to its present 50,000 square foot building. Miles of shelving are arranged for immediate identification of and easy accessibility to the over 250,000 different parts available.

Maintaining an inventory of this size has been the cornerstone of our success as the OEM parts distribution industry leader. It provides us with an average first pass fill rate of above 90% and makes us the largest supplier in America for the manufacturers that we represent. Our fill rate is calculated on not only everything that is ordered but also on every call or fax that we receive for availability, even if it isn't ordered! Our dealer order desk has 32 available sales representatives to handle all of your ordering needs.

An in-house computer system, with custom-designed programs to suit the firm's special needs, keeps track of all inventory and accounting records. Each employee has a separate terminal with its own display and keyboard, so that all necessary information is literally at everyone's fingertips.

Extensive cross-referencing from make/model number to part number and from parts descriptions to specific parts identification is maintained in the computer. A separate room houses a vast research library, stocked with service literature and manuals, catalogs, cross-referenced data, etc. Many sources are used, from printed form to microfiche, as well as notes compiled over the years by Andrews personnel.

The same management principles which opened the company's doors in 1950 are still guiding it today. Andrews Electronics pioneered a computerized system of controlling and up-dating inventory and order processing which gained it the reputation as the "stockingest" distributor around. Andrews is one of the old-timers in a relatively young field, a wholesaler whose seasoned staff has combined old-fashioned principles with innovative and fresh ideas along with the latest in technology.

The demands on the young company forced a move to larger quarters in a very short time, and even those new facilities had to be repeatedly enlarged over the following 30 years. In 1982 Andrews found itself occupying a 23,000 square foot building to accommodate its expansion. A significant step was again taken in 1988 when the firm relocated to its present 50,000 square foot building. Miles of shelving are arranged for immediate identification of and easy accessibility to the over 250,000 different parts available. Maintaining an inventory of this size has been the cornerstone of our success as the OEM parts distribution industry leader. It provides us with an average first pass fill rate of above 90% and makes us the largest supplier in America for the manufacturers that we represent. Our fill rate is calculated on not only everything that is ordered but also on every call or fax that we receive for availability, even if it isn't ordered! Our dealer order desk has 32 available sales representatives to handle all of your ordering needs. An in-house computer system, with custom-designed programs to suit the firm's special needs, keeps track of all inventory and accounting records. Each employee has a separate terminal with its own display and keyboard, so that all necessary information is literally at everyone's fingertips. Extensive cross-referencing from make/model number to part number and from parts descriptions to specific parts identification is maintained in the computer. A separate room houses a vast research library, stocked with service literature and manuals, catalogs, cross-referenced data, etc. Many sources are used, from printed form to microfiche, as well as notes compiled over the years by Andrews personnel. The same management principles which opened the company's doors in 1950 are still guiding it today. Andrews Electronics pioneered a computerized system of controlling and up-dating inventory and order processing which gained it the reputation as the "stockingest" distributor around. Andrews is one of the old-timers in a relatively young field, a wholesaler whose seasoned staff has combined old-fashioned principles with innovative and fresh ideas along with the latest in technology.

Andrews Electronics 25102 Rye Canyon Loop Valencia, CA 91355 24-Hour Order Desk: (800) 289-0300 Fax: (800) 289-0301 www.andrewselectronics.com   A few of the OEM lines carried in stock