We pride ourselves in assisting our customers with excellent service and offering no hassle ordering. From office furniture to business machines, we’ll work with you to find the products you need at budget-friendly prices. Consider us your partner in growth. Let’s build strong, long lasting customer relationships so that we may better serve you.
Our owners Randy Conlon, Steve Gerstenberger, and Trent Pearson take pride in having lived in the Galesburg area all of their lives. In addition, our entire team is dedicated to supporting the communities we serve.
Office Specialists, Inc. was established by Randy Conlon and Steve Gerstenberger in November of 1989. Both brought with them industry experience, having worked at other office products companies. During the first month, they operated the business out of Steve’s home – a small bungalow located in Galesburg. They had two employees in addition to themselves (all are still with the company today). At that time, OSI served the Galesburg community only, selling office supplies and furniture. OSI quickly grew with two additional employees and before they knew it, a 3,450-square foot commercial space located in Galesburg was the new location of their business.
In November of 1991 OSI became a member of National Office Buyers (NOB), currently known as Tri-Mega, providing substantial cost savings for our customers. This gave our customers the opportunity to purchase products at equal or better prices than big box stores.
In October of 1992, we expanded with the purchase of Norris Office Equipment in Monmouth, Illinois. Following this purchase, we became the Authorized Sharp Copier dealer for a multi-county area. We then expanded again with the addition of a machine showroom in Galesburg located at 28 North Seminary Street back in August of 1993. The machine showroom expanded to a larger facility in February of 1996 and moved to 221 East Main Street. Having the bigger space allowed us to showcase and demonstrate out full line of Sharp multi-function products and facsimile machines.
In August of 2000 Office Specialists, LLC was formed and lead by a new partner, Trent Pearson. Soon after, we acquired Missing Link Communications and this division grew to seven employees providing a full range of network & computer sales and service. The addition of a retail store in Kewanee, IL came in July 2001. We expanded our Computer Division and in 2010 Trent Pearson became a partner of Office Specialists, Inc. along with Steve and Randy as the LLC merged with the corporation. In March of 2011, we continued the expansion of our product offerings with addition of janitorial, sanitation and restaurant supplies. This addition increased our ability to supply products to a diverse array of businesses and facilities. After achieving strong growth in this new area of business, OSI joined NISSCO, one of the industry’s leading janitorial buying groups. This allowed us an even greater product offering with the ability to compete against larger distributors. Customers can now purchase these additional products at competitive pricing, along with their office supplies for delivery on our scheduled routes. This took us one step further to become a single source provider. In December 2012 we closed our retail location in Monmouth, IL and in November of 2017, closed our Kewanee retail facility, as we realigned our business plan to effectively compete with the growth of online businesses. We acquired additional space and furniture showroom in October 2017 with the purchase of 565 N West St. In addition, we did expand our business by acquiring Macomb Office Supply in April of 2018 and Western Distributing, Inc. located in Macomb, IL in July 2018. Today, we handle all our operations out of our corporate facility in Galesburg, IL and offer a robust online ordering system for our customers to use directly. With all these changes and growth, we are pleased to say we have 24 employees who all take pride in serving the more than 900+ customers in West Central Illinois & Eastern Iowa.OSI – “Providing Solutions for Your Business”. Thank you for choosing us.
