Industry Activities 

Atlas Distribution Services, Ltd was formed to help distributors of fasteners and industrial supplies unlock the potential of their global supply chains by helping to address certain “pain points” in areas involving product availability, packaging, minimums and lead times from qualified factories across Asia.  Atlas was founded by Scott Camp, a former Product & Supply Chain executive at the Fastenal Company.

Mr. Camp has over 27 years of experience within the industrial distribution channel; with well over 20 years falling within the global product management, sourcing, procurement and supply chain disciplines. After graduating from Elon University in 1991, he was hired by Fastenal Company whereby he served in various roles across the organization.  In 2003, Mr. Camp moved his wife and children to Shanghai, China where they lived for 5 years while establishing FASTCO (Shanghai) Trading Co., Ltd, the company’s foreign entity responsible for sourcing, supplier qualification, procurement, logistics and quality assurance operations.  During his time in Asia, he opened offices across China, Taiwan and SE Asia which included 3 ISO-17025/A2LA accredited laboratories.  Mr. Camp worked for Fastenal for more than 23 years, eventually working his way to the home office based in Winona, MN where he served as Vice President and later Executive VP responsible for the Company’s global supply chain operations.

After so many years of service, Scott decided to exit the company to pursue his passion for international trade by establishing Atlas Distribution Services, Ltd.  Given Scott’s deep love and respect for Taiwan, its people and culture, it was only natural for the first company to be founded in Taiwan.   Scott was quoted as saying “I have been coming to Taiwan since 1996 and until today I continue to marvel at Taiwan’s commitment to quality, service and advancing technologies across many of its key industries. As Gangshan, Tainan, Luchu and surrounding areas are commonly referred to as the “Fastener Kingdom” I knew I would have the greatest chance of success if I founded my first company here. To be successful it is so important to surround yourself with great people-for those who have met the Atlas team and know our supplier partners would agree.  As all my best friends are in Taiwan-I knew I would be able to do just that. My closest friends in the world own and operate fastener factories here and I sincerely want to help their companies continue to become as successful as possible.  As Atlas takes a less-traditional approach to servicing the distribution channel, I firmly believe we can help factories achieve greater market share in their primary end markets of North America and Western Europe.  We are proud to cooperate with the most well-known and respected manufacturers in Taiwan while helping them to make their products more readily available in the marketplace.  As Atlas Taiwan is now in its third year of operation I am proud to say that our greatest asset is of course the Atlas team. I always say it takes a team to build a dream.  The team members we have in Taiwan are smart, strong and highly capable to service any customer anywhere in the world.” 

Therefore, since Atlas in Taiwan was well-established, it was time to expand the company’s footprint by opening Atlas Hong Kong and its Shanghai, China subsidiary in 2017.  Today, as a group of companies with boots on the ground in Taiwan, mainland China and the USA, Atlas has a complete portfolio of products and services to add even greater value to its distributor clients.  The China company is led by Mr. Daniel Parent, who has ever worked with Scott since 1999.  “The Shanghai team is vital to our ongoing ability to service our clients across the low-to-medium carbon steel fastener categories while also adding many other non-fastener categories such as castings, forgings, stampings, weldments and other fabricated components to the mix. If you couple this with our warehousing and packaging capabilities coming on line now-Atlas is very well positioned to offer a significant value proposition at origin.”

In addition to the sourcing and fulfillment capabilities within Asia, Atlas also has a 50,000 sq. ft warehouse in central USA whereby fulfillment solutions can be tailored on behalf of its key partners seeking to leverage the company’s full platform.  “We offer the greatest value to those distributors who buy their A&B items from our operations in Asia while partnering with us to design fulfillment solutions from our Missouri warehouse for their C&D items.  Our best customers also take full advantage of our freight and customs brokerage services to realize their most competitive landed cost.  As most of our sales to distributors in the USA are under a DDP term, we therefore take over the challenges of dealing with the various shipping lines/forwarders while also handling the customs clearance into the USA.  We also manage the local carriers servicing the last mile of the supply chain, which can often be the most expensive. One of many things I learned from my mentor Will Oberton (my former boss and current Chairman at Fastenal) is that “the easiest way to sell is to make it convenient to buy”. By taking on the supply chain pains that our distributor clients face, we are able to save them time and money while letting them focus on growing their business.” 

Atlas Distribution Services, Ltd only sells to distributors seeking long-term and sustainable partnerships. “We are not for everyone, nor do we want to be. If you are interested in learning more, please reach out to us at info@atlasdistribution.com.tw. We appreciate the opportunity to serve.”

Michael “Scott” Camp
Founder & CEO, Atlas Distribution Services, Ltd.
Atlas helps select distributors realize the full potential of their global supply chain operations by offering sourcing, packaging and fulfillment solutions in addition to offering complimentary customs brokerage and freight forwarding services. Atlas currently operates fulfillment centers in Gangshan, Taiwan, Shanghai, China as well as Sullivan, Missouri.