The origins of APM lie in ITM (Internationaal Toeleverancier van Metaalwaren [International Supplier of Metal Goods]), which was founded by Paul Gerritsen and his business partner in 1979. Paul, the father of the current managing director, and his business partner worked for the branch of IBM that developed and manufactured typewriters. They used their years of production- and purchasing experience at IBM to set up their own company. Zandvoort became its first location, and from there they built ITM, which, over the following years, became a respectable trading company that remains active to this day. Guido took over ITM in the early nineties, and has been at the helm ever since.
APM was founded in 2006. APM emerged from a collaboration with a Japanese company, one of the biggest suppliers in the world of chains and chain tensioning systems, which can boast of having some of the largest and best-known brands as its end customers. As a Tier-1 supplier, they were looking for a reliable and innovative Tier 2 supplier to provide them with plunger components. After a successful start-up phase, in which APM showed itself to be not only a post-processing firm, but also a company that was active in researching underlying processes, such as development, distribution and innovation, a collaboration between the two was born. It is a collaboration that continues to this day, and accounts for almost four million components (2017) per year.