Eastern Marketing Services was by Bill Bryon and Dale Tock in the summer of 1986. At the outset, EMS sold only postcards (Detached Address Labels) for monthly flyers mailed by several major, independent retailers in New Hampshire, Maine and northern Massachusetts. In 1994, EMS transitioned from single piece deliveries to multi-piece packages. This “shared mail” approach allowed retailers to share the postal expense of reaching zip codes of common interest.