The two founding member companies, H. Hoffman Co. of Chicago, Illinois, and Armstrong's Lock and Supply of Atlanta, Georgia, began their expansion in the lock and security distribution industry through acquisitions in the mid-1970s. This included Hardware Sales and Supply of Detroit, M. Taylor of Philadelphia, N. Saginur of Toronto, Acme of New Orleans and many others, among them Interlocken, D. M. Webster, S. Simons, Cook's Supply, Harbinge Bros. and Wilco of Oakland, California. Each business had its own history and culture but welcomed the change to become part of a global distribution network, to become an important piece of the IDN Global story. Some company names changed, some were merged, a few closed (nobody wins all the time) but all became part of what once was called ALVI (yes, really!) and later IDN, Inc. and ultimately IDN Global, Inc.