a2b History

In the late 1990s, a2b’s founder, Ayal Latz, was running the day-to-day operations of his family’s new toy company. Latz Chance Games, Inc. had just one product, SURVIVAL OR EXTINCTION – The Dinosaur Game. This dinosaur board game won 11 awards. It was recognized for both its playability and educational value.

During that time, Ayal’s day-to-day was 75-100 phone calls to its customer base of specialty toy stores. He sold a box of games at a time. Evenings were spent hand-writing UPS labels and logging them into the UPS “book.”

As the years passed by, Ayal decided to outsource the order fulfillment. It made perfect sense. The company was saddled with the costs of a warehouse that was only fully utilized after each print run. As games would ship out, there would be unutilized space.  

It looked good on paper, but the outsourcing experience was poor.  

Latz Chance Game’s first 3PL was poor at communications. They took way too long to process orders. A second provider promised a better experience. They ended up lacking operating controls and over-shipped inventory.

Ayal knew that he could do better. He figured other companies must be having the same disappointing experience. Ayal set out to cobble together a few customers in the toy industry that he knew, and in 2001, from just a 4,000-square-foot space in Athens, GA, a2b was born.

It’s 2001, a2b’s first customer was The Tangent Toy Company, Louis Pearl - The Amazing Bubble Man’s line of bubble-blowing toys. Tangent Toy fulfilled orders from California and saw an opportunity to lower costs by splitting a portion of its inventory to the East Coast. a2b provided a high level of service to the account. A year later, the venture was so successful that Tangent decided to close its own facility in CA and fulfill everything from a2b.

Next up was the Atlanta Falcons. a2b fulfilled e-commerce orders from the team’s online store. With 3,000 different “red items” in the facility, we quickly leveled up our game. a2b managed the complexity of apparel fulfillment and the surges in order volume as well.  

Over the next few years, a2b grew and moved many times. From 4,000 sf to 35,000 sf to a big leap in 2006 to 180,000 sf in Greensboro, GA. This remains our headquarters to this day. With the added space, a2b aggressively grew its business. At one point, we offered free storage for a year for new accounts (sorry, this promotion has been long discontinued!).

Over the next 10 years, a2b worked on acquiring the building blocks to scale. We invested in a new Warehouse Management System (WMS). It is highly customized to meet the varying needs of our diverse client base.

During this time, a2b also put forth an Order Management System (OMS) to diversify its services. This includes payment processing and continuity/subscription management. And in 2011, a2b’s Contact Center opened, offering live-agent customer care to our client’s customers.

In 2019, a2b moved forward with a major expansion plan. We opened four additional facilities in three US regions. First came the opening of our western location near Salt Lake City, Utah. This facility added 240,000 square feet of Class A distribution space. It gave a2b’s clients the ability to split inventory between the East and West.  

Next came two facilities in South Carolina, adding an additional 294,000 square feet. The facilities are located 2.5 hours from both the ports of Savannah and Charleston, growing a2b’s footprint in the Southeast.

In 2022, a2b opened a brand-new, 260,000-square-foot facility outside of Wilkes-Barre, PA. The result is fast service to the heavily populated northeastern states.  

Now with ample space in three US regions, southeast, northeast, and west, a2b reaches 95% of US households in just 1 or 2 days via Ground shipping.

a2b makes its foray into robotics, opting for a goods-to-person model. A complement to the automation already in place, a2b's efficiencies take another great leap forward!