2011 SCORE Award - Outstanding Minority-Owned Small Business 

Drafted into the U.S. Army soon after his college graduation in 1967, this former quarterback and team captain began accumulating invaluable lessons that would add to his future business success. Stationed in Saigon during the Vietnam War, C. Ray Kennedy came out of the service as a disabled veteran in 1970.

Kennedy’s military experience taught him discipline, motivation, ambition, leadership and teamwork. He applied those principles for over 20 years in banking, before deciding to start his own company.  And in 1992 C. Ray Kennedy launched American Product Distributors as a distributor of paper products throughout the Southeast. Kennedy understood that being a minority company would not be enough to keep him in business, inspiring this visionary to bring greater value to the table and out-perform other companies. APD has revolutionized the procurement process for large corporations, institutions, and government agencies. The company’s expansion required new methods of sales and distribution, leading APD into a multi-million dollar investment in technology infrastructure and technological capabilities.

APD has grown from a two-employee start-up with $200,000 worth of business, to 50 employees today, with gross revenues of nearly $100 million dollars in sales. In the nearly 20 years of business APD’s  list of clients include the top companies in America.