97 years ago, when my great grandpa Thomas P. Scanlan started Surplus Record, he had a vision to connect dealers and manufacturers across the nation. World War I had ended a few years prior, and he saw a demand to get wartime machinery no longer being used, out of the hands of the government and into civilian manufacturing. He created the Surplus Record as an easy way for dealers to advertise their machinery to manufacturers and connect for joint ventures and lifelong partnerships.
Nearly 100 years later, I know he would be proud to see how far Surplus Record has come over our company’s lifetime and how many relationships have been forged through our book and website.
When my father came on board in 1982, the economy was in a depression, but it was gearing up for a big turnaround. Little did he know, the internet was coming and it was about to make a huge impact in every market. Surplus Record officially went online in 1986 under the brand name “SRIS” Surplus Record Information Services. It was through an MS-DOS interface, and it allowed users to view listings on a computer screen versus a book.
We’ve come a long way since the 1986 days of “SRIS”. Today, we have a new set of challenges compared to the 1980s. One of them being information overload. How do you sort through the noise and find exactly what you want? That’s what Surplus Record is here to solve.
As you may have noticed on this month’s cover, we have a new look and feel to the Surplus Record book. This is the first time we have updated our logo since 1985! With this new look, we have launched a new re-designed, state-of-the-art website for searching and finding machinery.
Over the coming weeks and months, we’ll be updating the website to make it even better as we collect your feedback and look at the data to improve searching.
Make no mistake – this is just the beginning of a new era for Surplus Record to continue to be the first stop to find machinery and equipment.
We’re just getting started…
– Thomas McAuliffe Scanlan
(From the June print issue of the Surplus Record Machinery & Equipment Directory)
