What today seems a deceptively simple concept—the binding together of numerous sets of sales slips into a book with a single, fixed sheet of carbon to provide a transaction record for both buyer and seller—was actually the foundation of a multi-billion dollar business forms company known as Moore Corporation Limited, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario.

This idea to "let one writing serve many purposes" was conceived in 1882 by John R. Carter, a young sales clerk. Of the many people Carter approached, Samuel J. Moore of the Grip Printing and Publishing Company of Toronto, was the first to recognize the potential of the salesbook. S.J. Moore, an outstanding entrepreneur, acquired the rights to produce it and thus laid the groundwork for the entire business forms industry, which today grosses more than $7 billion in sales in North America alone.

The first counter salesbook, The Paragon Black Leaf Counter Check Book, was enthusiastically received by businesses in Canada. Shortly after its launch there, the realization of the vast markets awaiting such a product across the border took S.J. Moore and his associates to Niagara Falls, New York, where he set up the first factory devoted exclusively to the manufacture of salesbooks.

In 1889, Moore helped establish the Lamson Paragon Supply Co. in London with rights to the salesbook patents and manufacturing know-how throughout Europe and Australia.

Over the next forty years, S.J. Moore acquired nine related businesses in North America, known as the "Moore Group", and in 1929 these merged to form Moore Corporation Limited.

Products introduced over the years by the diverse companies included zigzagfolded, flatpakit forms for register machines, continuous folded forms, the economical one-time carbon, and the development of web-fed lithography making quality high-speed mass production a reality.

In 1965, Moore joined with Toppan Printing Co. Ltd. of Japan to establish the Japanese-based joint venture Toppan Moore Company, Ltd. Today, Toppan Moore is Southeast Asia's number one business forms manufacturer ... second largest in the world, next to Moore Corporation.

In 1977, the British-based Lamson Industries merged with Moore Corporation, the ultimate step in an association begun with the introduction of the Paragon Counter Check Book to British merchants in the 1880s.

Moore Business Forms and Systems, the Canadian division of Moore Corporation, markets computer supplies and accessories as well as business forms. With manufacturing facilities and sales offices from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to Victoria British Columbia, Moore Corporation supplies all phases of the Canadian corporate sector.

Internationally, the Moore network operates in 50 countries and employs over 26,000 people worldwide; in 1987 sales exceeded 3 billion dollars. Moore is the first name in business forms—but forms are just the beginning. Moore is also bar codes and business equipment, direct marketing and data base publishing, computer services, systems and supplies, and more.

Poised at the leading edge of the Information Age, Moore is addressing the present and future needs of its global customers through ongoing research and development in its multi-million dollar research centre, in-depth market analysis, value-added market support programs, and a continual stream of new products and technologies. The future is fast upon us, and Moore, as always, will be at the forefront helping businesses do business in a new and complex informationbased society.