Greensboro company lumbers into mail-order fax business.

• Position: C.T. Adams Lumber Co. - Tar Heel Tattler - Company profile

Greensboro company lumbers into mail-order fax business

As America's fax attack intensifies, a Greensboro business that exports hardwood is suddenly selling a lot of electronic hardware.

Fax City, which advertises in publications such as Inc. and USA Today, is actually a part of C.T. Adams Lumber Co. While selling hardwood lumber overseas, the company found itself constantly corresponding with Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Spain. The fax (short for facsimile) proved a speedy and accurate way to transmit and receive complicated orders.

"About four years ago, we saw the need to buy a large group of fax machines for our suppliers and ourselves," says Charles Adams, company president. "We saw faxes as a more efficient, less expensive and more accurate means of transferring information than what was being done by Federal Express.

At that time, the fax business was divided into dealerships, like the copier business--everyone had a closely protected area. We felt that a mail-order house selling fax machines nationwide would be fairly prosperous in a few years ... that by not having the overhead of a retailer, with the cost of a showroom and salespeople, we could substantially discount the machines.

In 1984, Fax City was born. Adams took on three lines to begin with and has expanded to 12, with prices ranging from $900 to $4,200. He sells as many...