Lanier is a subsidiary of Ricoh Corporation based in Atlanta, Georgia. The company offers customers copiers, scanners, fax machines, printers, digital duplicators, parts and supplies. Nowadays, Lanier is leading the market in specific industry applications, including real estate and healthcare.
The company began in Nashville, Tennessee by three Lanier brothers. They began distributing dictation machines, although over the years the company has expanded to do vastly more than the one product it began with. Soon they began mass producing Thomas Edison's Ediphone. When WWII began, however, production went down tremendously and the company was forced to begin producing apparel. When the war ended, though, so did the manufacturing of textiles. By 1947, dictation machines were again being produced, and in 1955 Lanier made a major turn for their company—they began producing and distributing copiers much like today.
Though the company has transitioned throughout the years, the quality production of machines was always the backbone of the company. In 2001, the company was purchased by Ricoh. By 2002, they had monopolized the market for document management systems for healthcare organizations. These systems include encryption features that ensure faxing and copying of patient health records is secured. They also began doing similar things for the real estate market. By the end of 2002, they shifted much of their business' focus to home offices.
Although Lanier is a part of the Ricoh company, it stands on its own two feet very well. Lanier has many versatile options for home users, personal users, large offices, small offices, high-production offices and entire departments of offices. Wide format products, facsimile products, black-and-white network laser printers, color network laser printers, digital duplicators and digital multifunction products are all produced by this company. They also produce ink and toner for their many products. No matter the business or home needs, Lanier probably has a product that will meet them and do so efficiently and affordably.
