In 1979, Jackie Lackie rented a 2,500 square foot warehouse in North Little Rock and started selling pallet rack. Today his son Josh runs the company. Plenty of companies say "since 1979." Here's ours, year by year, with the names and numbers attached.
Everything AMH does today (used rack at scale, in-house reconditioning, our own crews and trucks) traces back to a specific year and a specific decision. This is the record.
Through the mid-70s, Jackie Lackie sold school supplies, toys, and gifts to drug stores and variety stores in small-town Arkansas. Average sale: $75 to $150, on 10% commission. In 1979 he went out on his own, walked into the bigger warehouses in Little Rock, and asked what they were buying. The answer kept coming back the same: pallet racking, shelving, and containers. No Google in 1979, so he found the manufacturers at the public library.
His father fought in World War II, and the family was deeply patriotic, so the name was an easy choice: American Material Handling. (It also started with an "A," which put the new company at the top of the phone book.) Day one: five employees. Three in sales, a secretary, and a warehouse manager, in 2,500 square feet with two offices and a bathroom. They outgrew it within the year: over 6,000 square feet, a contract install crew, and the only stocking distributorship in Arkansas for Lyon and Interlake.
AMH moved into a 15,000 square foot warehouse and opened sales branches in Shreveport, Dallas, Houston, and Memphis. The product catalog was a set of three-ring binders, and most orders shipped direct to the customer. By year seven, AMH was the third-largest Lyon distributor and fourth-largest Interlake distributor, with two install crews working exclusively for AMH.
The economy stalled, manufacturers stopped granting exclusive territories, and AMH closed every branch except Memphis, back down to five employees. But the downturn revealed something: customers going under needed to sell their equipment, and the ones who survived still needed to buy, just for less. AMH started buying and selling used warehouse equipment. The worst year in company history produced the decision that still defines it.
Very few companies bought and sold used warehouse equipment in the early 90s, so AMH grew while others waited on factory lead times. A larger warehouse with 8 acres of yard let AMH stock used rack customers could pick up the same day. Used equipment went from about half of sales to almost 90% by the end of the decade. Jackie's son Josh started working in the business, and AMH opened a 300,000 square foot warehouse in Memphis. That would matter later.
The dot-com collapse flooded the market with used rack (much of it never even loaded), steel prices fell, and after 9/11 business nearly stopped. AMH sold the Memphis location. Josh left for investment banking. Jackie later said the company's patriotic name may have helped it survive that stretch, and it was the proudest he ever was of choosing it.
With Josh gone, Jackie hired his daughter Jana in 2002 to sell in Memphis. By January 2003 the situation was blunt: no big sales in six months and the doors would close. Then, on June 25, 2003, AMH bought $200,000 worth of rack and warehouse material and sold all of it in under a week, for around a million dollars. Back in business. In 2004, AMH bought the old Georgia Pacific facility in North Little Rock: 150,000 square feet on 120 acres, with room to grow at last.
Jana retired in 2008 to raise her family, and the AMH team grew to more than 40 people over the following decade. The 2007–2008 financial crisis came and went; after 1987 and 2001, Jackie called it the easiest downturn yet. E-commerce changed what customers expected (faster shipping, direct-to-customer speed), so AMH stocked more inventory, brought all refurbishing in-house, and put its own trucks on the road.
At the 40-year mark, Jackie announced his succession plan: his son Josh would take over operations. Jackie's public goodbye ended simply: "I hope I've been as good to you as you all have been to me." He signed it "Forever grateful." He also made clear he wasn't fully walking away, and he hasn't.
AMH is still family-owned, now run by the second generation from West Memphis and Little Rock, Arkansas, serving warehouses in 32+ states. The numbers Jackie started tracking on a peg board now read: 47+ years in business, 1,200+ completed projects, over 400,000 square feet of warehouse space, $10M+ in used rack inventory on hand, and in-house crews leading every project. In 2026, Daifuku recognized AMH as an award-winning distributor. The equipment hasn't changed much since the three-ring binder days (pallet rack has a longer story than AMH does, told in the history of pallet racking). Neither has the way we treat people.
Provide warehousing solutions and services that reflect who we are, who we serve, and how we want to be remembered. The AMH Mission
Relationships, value, service, reliability: every company claims them. Here's what each one looks like at AMH after 47+ years.
AMH didn't adopt sustainability as a marketing position. Buying, reconditioning, and reselling steel has been the business model since the 1987 downturn. Repurpose what the client already has, recondition what can be saved, recycle what can't. The tonnage speaks for itself.
The founder is still around (he said he'd never fully walk away, and he meant it). The second generation runs the floor. Meet the people you'll actually talk to.
