It’s amazing how much a business can grow in 100 years! Through careful growth and strategic acquisitions, Perry Office Plus has grown from its humble beginnings in downtown Temple, to Central Texas’ largest independent workplace products and furniture dealer!
Perry traces its roots to American Printing, a small print shop that opened in a rented space in Temple in 1920.
Within a year of opening, they were already selling office supplies, textbooks, and even furniture. After moving around downtown over the next couple of decades to accommodate their growth, the business landed on South 2nd Street.
By the early 1950s, American Printing employed about 15 people, had 5,000 square feet of floor space, and was one of the largest printing firms in Central Texas. The company handled “job printing”, engraving, lithographing, and embossing, and carried a complete line of printing and office supplies, as well as typewriters and adding machines.
After J.W. and Ruth Perry purchased American Printing in 1966, they focused on growth and expansion. In 1976, the Perrys opened an office products retail location in downtown Belton called Belton Office Products. After dividing the business into American Printing and Perry Office Products, the Perrys also opened a location in Killeen, Texas. The American Printing division was sold in 1988 to focus on the office products business.
Their continued growth made the business attractive to locals Harry and Debbie Macey, who purchased the company in 1994, and later rebranded the business to Perry Office Plus.
In 1999, the Maceys also acquired Curry Office Supply in Waco, which had been in business since the 1940s. They continued operating the retail location in the historic Washington Avenue location. That same year, Perry merged the Killeen location with Myron’s Office World on Gray Street.
These acquisitions greatly expanded the reach of the company into those markets and just 10 years into the Maceys tenure, Perry had quadrupled in size. After being spread out across multiple buildings in Temple for years, the Maceys purchased and renovated the former Coca-Cola bottling plant on North 3rd Street in Temple in 2005. This allowed them to consolidate the company offices, call center, and various warehouses into a single facility.
As demand for retail services waned in favor of daily delivery service, the Killeen location was closed in 2009, and the Waco retail store transitioned to a furniture showroom, finally landing in Woodway.
In 2018, Perry acquired local furniture dealer CFS, Inc. in Temple, and in turn, aligned with furniture manufacturer Knoll.
In 2020, Perry acquired two additional Texas businesses: the office supply division of Mackie’s in Waco, and the Austin branch of Tejas Office Products of Houston, further solidifying the Perry presence in those areas.
Despite all of this growth, Perry is still proud to call Central Texas home, still be locally owned and operated, and still be deeply connected to our roots in the communities we serve.