Our Story | Spectrum Technologies

Serving El Paso since 1903

Our Story

Thank you.

To our many highly-valued clients in West Texas, Southern New Mexico, across the international border in Juarez, Mexico and to those scattered throughout the rest of Texas and the U.S., we are deeply gratified by the trust you have placed in us and our team of professional employees and vendor-partners for your business technology needs.  Certainly, much has changed since the early 1900’s in the way businesses communicate, process and distribute information.  And the pace with which technology changes seems to increase exponentially year after year.  

But the core commitment to deliver both state-of-the-art, high-quality technology solutions and prompt, professional support by the Spectrum Team will never change.  We pledge to continue to bring innovative products and services to the market and will partner with you to increase the productivity, efficiency, and profitability of your important operation.  We count it a privilege to have worked alongside many great people, companies, and organizations for 115 years.  And we will strive to bring you “The Office of the Future”, as ever-changing as it will continue to be.

- Kyle Elliott
Partner & President

Celebrating 115 Years - Spectrum Technologies
1903

Our Beginning

Norton Brothers Inc. was founded by Charles F. Wilken, L. Blakesley, and J.G. Freeman, as the International Book and Stationary Co., Inc. The original location was at 107 South El Paso street, now the site of the Capri Theatre.

1911

The Mimeograph

Fred Norton, Sr. signed an agreement for his company International Book & Stationery (later called Norton Brothers Office Supply) to become the local, authorized distributors for the A.B. Dick mimeograph machine.

1911 - Spectrum Technologies
1958

A.B. Dick Products of El Paso

Mr. Edgar Dodds spun off from Norton Brothers, moved across the street and began doing business as A.B. Dick Products of El Paso to market and service A.B. Dick products in the greater El Paso area. The company had 4 employees and $103,000 in annual sales.

1958 - Spectrum Technologies
1968

Yandell Location

The company moved to a new 8,600 square foot location on East Yandell Street near downtown El Paso.

1970

The Office of the Future

The company evolved with the introduction of the first office copier. Our partnership with Canon enabled us to grow to be one of the area’s largest copier providers.

1970 - Spectrum Technologies
1986

A New Vision

Marcelo Plesant, a 21-year employee of the company who started with A.B. Dick as an entry-level sales clerk, took the reigns as president and owner. With the ownership change, the company began to take on a new shape and vision. With a firm foothold in the offset printing and graphic arts equipment market, Plesant began focusing the company on becoming the premier office machines dealer in the area.

1986 - Spectrum Technologies
1994

Spectrum Imaging Systems

After 35 years as strictly a distributor of A.B. Dick products, a planned expansion was implemented and brought about by a series of a new dealer marketing agreements: 

  • The acquisition of exclusive distribution rights for the industry's premier high-speed digital duplicators from Riso, Inc. 
  • Agreements were reached with Minolta to represent their copier & fax lineup and with Konica for their revolutionary digital printer/copier.

With the change in product offerings came a change in name as we created a new identity for our future in Spectrum Imaging Systems (later Spectrum Technologies).

1994 - Spectrum Technologies
1997

Trowbridge Office

We moved our sales, administrative and executive offices to our new, modern, "Office of the Future" showroom conveniently located in the heart of El Paso at Interstate 10 and Trowbridge.

1997 - Spectrum Technologies
1998

New Acquisitions

Acquisition of two El Paso area companies gave us the distribution rights to Canon, the world’s #1 manufacturer of black & white and color copiers, fax and digital imaging products.

1999

Branching into New Mexico

We opened a branch operation in Las Cruces, New Mexico to service our clients in Southern and Western New Mexico.

1999 - Spectrum Technologies
2002

DOS

We began our Document Outsourcing Solutions division that offers printing and digital file conversion services.

2004

Spectrum Technology Group

We began the Spectrum Technology Group, providing computer network design, installation, integration and remote monitoring, and management services.

2004 - Spectrum Technologies
2007

Pellicano Office

Our customer support Operations Center moved to a modern 25,000 square foot facility in east El Paso.

2007 - Spectrum Technologies
2013

A New Generation

The torch was passed to a new generation as partners Kyle Elliott and Mitch Plesant continued their quest to move Spectrum into a new era of integrated technology solutions in the area of “Documents, Networks, Systems & Services” by further broadening the company’s competencies in VoIP telephony, document management software and a greater portfolio of IT hardware and software partners.

2013 - Spectrum Technologies