 Keeping
The World On Time Since 1919
In 1919, when George Lathem and his son, Louie Sr., began selling
time clocks, factories were one of the few markets for time
recorders and night watchman patrol clocks. The Lathems traveled by
train throughout the Southeast, getting off at whistlestops and
looking for the telltale smokestacks of a potential new customer.
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The expansion of the time recorder market began with the
passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, requiring
accurate time records. Increasing wage scales further added
to this growing market. Following World War II, the Lathems
resigned their sales relationship with another manufacturer
and began selling war surplus machines while developing
their first Lathem product.
At about the same time, Harrison
Hooper came to work for the Lathems. He was the engineering
power at Lathem in the early years and helped develop
Lathem's first time recorder. In 1947, Louie P. Lathem, Jr.,
joined the firm. It was the same year that Lathem Time
developed its first time recorder - the Series 76 Lathem
Watchman Clock, named for the company's former address, 76
Spring Street.
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Over the next 10 years, Lathem
began building a network of independent office supply and machine
dealers that today stretches worldwide. Lathem Time Corporation has
grown to become one of the industry's leading suppliers of small
business time and attendance products and boasts one of the largest
dealer networks in the country.
In the 1980s, management was ceded to the next
generation of the Lathem and Hooper families with the death of
Harrison Hooper and the retirement of Louie Lathem. Bill Lathem
became the chief executive officer and Ann Hooper became the chief
financial officer. The company is now proud to qualify as a
woman-owned business with the majority of ownership falling to the
daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters of the founders.
Lathem Makes Product Advances to Keep Time
with Small Business
Although known many years for mechanical time
recorders, Lathem now also develops automated employee time and
attendance tracking systems, including the No. 1-selling automated
system for small business, PayClock® EZ. Other products include time
clocks, data collection terminals, software and synchronized wall
clocks.
Lathem has re-dedicated itself to new products by
investing heavily in engineering, design and development. Not
limited to manufacturing expertise, several of these new products
feature powerful application software. One of the company's newest
developments is the data integration of its PayClock EZ system with
Intuit's QuickBooks® Pro/Premier 2002 software. This integration
provides small businesses with a fully automated "punch-to-paycheck"
system for managing their payroll process and expenses. PayClock's
automation reduces payroll preparation time by up to 80 percent and
eliminates inaccuracies associated with manual calculations, saving
up to 3 percent in payroll costs.
Employee Pride Drives Company's Success
Lathem's continued success for more than 82 years
can be attributed to several factors. Employee pride in the company
drives Lathem's commitment to excellence. Employees average 11 years
of service with the company, and many have been with Lathem more
than 25 years.
Lathem's products, including parts, tools and
dies are designed and manufactured in-house, ensuring strict quality
and cost control at each stage of production. New products are
carefully and extensively tested before entering the marketplace,
and Lathem's engineering team continuously reviews all products,
improving performance and implementing technological advancements.
Since 1919, Lathem's commitment to high-quality
products and service has made it one of the most respected and
trusted names in the time and attendance industry, estimated at half
a billion dollars. Lathem Time remains a family-owned and operated
company, now into its fourth generation, with 175 employees. Over
300,000 companies worldwide use a Lathem timekeeping product for
managing their business.
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