“Over Sixty Years of Dedicated Service”
Dallas Pen “Shop” was founded by Lyman Short in 1947 as a retail card shop and fountain pen repair center. Lyman was a traveling salesman for both Sheaffer and Parker Pen for many years. The invention and development of the ballpoint pen led Lyman to more and more writing instruments and fewer cards and fountain pen repairs.
In 1955 Lyman hired Ed Melugin as his first outside salesman. Ed called on all commercial accounts and began developing the wholesale side of the business.
Ed immediately converted the business to 100 % wholesale selling to drug stores, office supply stores, college bookstores and specialty shops. He also built a 10,000 sq ft. warehouse and relocated. Ed then began to expand the product offering to include more items that could be sold to his existing customers. This meant more office supplies. He also expanded by hiring sales people to cover Texas and Louisiana.
In 1975 Ed brought his son Pat into the business who continued to develop and expand the company. He increased the sales force to 12 and expanded the states covered. In 1986 he began to bring in school supplies such as Bemis Jason and Mead. In 1995 Pat started buying lines such as Carson Dellosa and TREND Ent. which took the company in the direction of yet another transformation.
In June 2004 Dallas Pen Company produced its first Big Book of Learning Materials catalog and launched it’s website. We published 2 Big Books a year, the Little Big Book once a year, Spring New Product Flyer, Fall Seasonal and New Product Flyer and our newest addition, The Inspirational flyer.
In June 2010 we partnered with Catalog Solutions to back their catalogs and websites for our customers.
In July 2011 we adapted to meet the needs of all customers. We reached an agreement with Creative Catalog Concepts to back their catalogs and website in addition to Catalog Solutions. We are looking forward to what these partnerships will hold for us in the future.
Today, Dallas Pen Company occupies a 49,000 sq ft. warehouse with over 33,000 inventoried items. There are 8 full time sales people covering Texas, Louisiana,Oklahoma, Arkansas, New Mexico, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri, Kansas, Virginia and South Carolina. We have 8 customer service specialists that are there to answer any question you might have. We service accounts nationwide via phone and the Internet.
Ed Melugin has been retired since 1990 leaving the running of the company to Pat (President & CEO), Bobbie Melugin (Vice President)
We are over 60 years old and still growing strong and looking forward to the changes ahead of us.