The beginnings of the Maadiran Group go back to 1963. When originally established, the single company that would later be known as Maadiran was called the M.Amiri & Company.

One year after its incorporation the company obtained the exclusive distribution rights for Olivetti cash registers and Sharp Corporation’s electronic calculators. At the time, the Sharp calculators were the first personal electronic calculators in the world and a groundbreaking development. In it’s first few years, the company also saw itself enter the Iranian banking sector by introducing De La Rue banknote and coin counting machines.

The mid and late seventies saw the company expand it’s product lines once again. In 1976 IOMCO obtained the sole exclusive distributorship for Hermes typewriters. Working closely with Hermes, IOMCO developed the first ever Persian (Farsi) typeset in the industry making Hermes an outright success. The following year Nixdorf and CTM Computers were introduced into the banking sector by the company. This shortly coincided with the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

The subsequent years contained many challenges for the company such as the Islamic Revolution and the ensuing Iran-Iraq War. In these times IOMCO fought hard to build and keep a strong dealer network and an unchallengeable reputation as a company that delivered on its promises regardless of the war and sanctions.

Despite all this the company had the vision to expand into home computers and gaming machines. In 1984, IOMCO became the sole exclusive distributors for Commodore Computers making these the first home computers to enter the Iranian market by the tens of thousands. Through IOMCO, Commodore was able to dominate the Iranian market by virtually gaining a 100% market share.

In this period, IOMCO became the first company in the private sector to introduce fax machines to Iran. The cutting edge Sharp devices quickly took the number one position alongside many of the company’s other products. At the same time IOMCO started to market it’s own brand PCs and Calculators by the name of Unitec. This continued until the company received the exclusive distribution rights for Olivetti PCs in 1994, thus replacing Unitec.

The development of the laptop computer created an opportunity for the company. In 1989 IOMCO became the first company to introduce laptops into Iran. In the same year an agreement with Seikosha Printers (known as Seiko-Epson Corporation today) allowed us to distribute their products exclusively. In 1991, IOMCO would start working with the Epson Corporation to distribute their inkjet and laser printers as well.

Since the establishment of the company there had always been a focus on supporting customers when they needed it. This had led to the growth of a strong internal after-sales support division. In 1993, this division was separated from the rest of the company and re-established as an independent subsidiary creating the foundation for what is now Iran’s largest and best equipped technology support company in Iran.

Around this time the Iranian Government made a concerted effort to help manufacturers and promote local industry. Imports for a number of products were quickly banned for the first time since the company’s establishment and IOMCO was forced to stop working with Glory and De La Rue, thus dramatically weakening the company’s once strong banking division.

Due to the new rules and regulations, a few years later in 1994, IOMCO made a strategic decision to enter manufacturing. Working exclusively with LG Electronics of Korea, IOMCO established a subsidiary manufacturing facility in Hashtgerd (80 Km from Tehran), thus giving rise to the groups industrial arm: IOMInd. The then fledgling factory was going to be Iran’s first production facility for CRT monitors.

In 2003 Maadiran began to distribute LG Optical Disk Drives, this was supplemented by LG Notebooks the following year.

2006 saw several dramatic changes take place at Maadiran. Firstly, in order to further expand the company’s product range, an exclusive dealership agreement was signed with Optoma for their line of data projectors.

More importantly, in an attempt to get back in touch with the company’s roots, Maadiran began to focus on the banking sector in order to strengthen it’s position and gain market dominance once again. This strategic decision brought together a range of companies such CTS, Panini, PSI as well as the development of special software systems to provide total solutions for bank cheque clearing houses.

In 2007 Maadiran commenced the mass production of mobile phones under license from LG Electronics. The end of the year also saw plans for an expansion of the Audio Video, IT, and Banking product lines.

At present, we're looking forward to 2008 in the hopes of seeing 2007's plans come to fruition.

A long history of firsts for Iran: