HISTORY OF

CHADER BUSINESS EQUIPMENT

            Chader Business Equipment was started in 1946 by Carl Chader who had spent his previous working years as a service technician with the Underwood company. He started his company selling and servicing Underwood typewriters.

            In 1965, Carl sold his business to Vern Fish and Roger Olson, who were service technician and sales representative respectfully at the Typewriter Shop in St. Cloud. Vern and Roger shortly added their first service technician, Gordon Hove, and continued as an Underwood dealer. (Gordon Hove is currently employed with Chader, owns 40% of the company, and is a certified, trained technician on Digital copiers and Fusion Voice Products.) The first product that Vern and Roger added to their line was a dictation system by Stenocord. Stenocord was later purchased by the Lanier Corporation. Today, Chader offers Digital Voice Products through out all of Minnesota.

Vern and Roger incorporated the company in 1968 in the state of Minnesota. They increased their customer base and brought the service department to a three person department. One of these technicians was Ron Strege. Ron was with the company until he retired in 2008.

            In 1978, Vern and Roger sold the company to Jim Rose, who had spent many previous years as a national sales manager for the Lanier Corporation. Jim added Olivetti word processors and SCM copiers to the line of products. He also increased the staff by one additional service technician and two additional sales people.

            In 1986, Jim Rose sold the company to Donna Stai and Gordon Hove. Within the first year of ownership, Donna and Gordon added a full line of copiers and Panasonic fax machines to the line of products. In 1988, they increased the line to include personal computers and related products.

            In the spring of 1996, Chader started construction on their current corporate offices in Waite Park, Minnesota.  The building was designed to better accommodate modern technology and the company’s growing needs.

            Chader Business Equipment placed their first digital copier/printer in April, 1996. We received the High-Volume Digital Products certification in December, 1997. Today Chader offers the entire Kyocera/Copystar line of multifunctional units and printer units, both monochrome and full color.

            Our market for printing solutions includes 13 counties in central Minnesota going out about 100 miles around St. Cloud. These counties include Stearns, Morrision, Benton, Mille Lacs, Isanti, Kanabec, Sherburne, Crow Wing, Todd, Kandiyohi, Meeker, McCloud, and Wright Counties.

            Chader Voice Technology (CBE’s voice product’s division) covers the entire State of Minnesota offering such products as digital dictation, speech recognition, and text packages. The heavy concentration of this division is on the medical, legal, law enforcement, and government markets.

Past and Present Owners

Carl Chader

 1946 - 1965

Vern Fish

1965 - 1978

Jim Rose

1978 - 1986

Donna Stai

1986 - Present

Gordon Hove

1986 - Present