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 ecommerce 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 embarked on its first geographic expansion with a 240,000 sf, Class A facility in Ogden, UT, just north of Salt Lake City.  This enabled a2b’s clients to split inventory across east and west and realize substantial savings in terms of both cost and delivery time.

Our quest to automate begins in our Georgia location. The entire facility is retooled with a zone divert conveyor system that moves shipping containers through a 2-story pick module, diverting where there are items to be picked, and then continuing on their way through document insertion, weight and dimension capture, shipping, and sortation by carrier, greatly streamlining the fulfillment process.  A year later, automation was added to a2b’s Utah facility.

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a2b expands again, with a build-to-suit, 262,000 sf facility in Wilkes-Barre, PA.  This facility is outfitted with automation, VNA racking, and robotics.  

Now with ample space in three US regions, southeast, northeast, and west, a2b’s clients reach 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!