Kardex Holding AG, headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, specializes in automated storage and retrieval systems, integrated material handling, small parts storage, and automated high-bay warehouses for modern warehouses in a variety of industries. Employing around 2,700 people across 30+ countries, Kardex Holding AG has been listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange since 1989.

Kardex has been a significant name in business data storage since 1898, tracing back to the Rand Ledger Company. The brand became closely linked to the widespread adoption of the index card as a standard tool for business data management, reflecting its role in the evolution of information organization and retrieval systems throughout the 20th century.

Kardex as a company name was introduced in 1915, subsumed in 1927 (it remained as a brand name and a division name), and revived in 1977.

American Ledger was founded by James H. Rand, Sr. in 1898. Rand had been a banker for many years and had come to see that existing index card systems used by clerks were inefficient. What was needed was a rationalized system using dividers, file tabs, and labels. Rand Sr. invented an improved filing system based on these concepts and founded the Rand Ledger Company to manufacture his index system, called the Visible Ledger.

James Rand, Jr. joined his father's company after being graduated from Harvard University in 1908 and ran it from 1910 through 1914. In 1915 the elder Rand re-assumed control of the company and Rand Jr., unable to reach agreement with his father on business matters, left.

James Rand, Jr. formed his own filing and index supply company, American Kardex, in 1915. Within five years, American Kardex grew to be one of the leading office supply companies in the United States. It was roughly equal in revenues to Rand Ledger, and the two companies easily dominated the American office supply market. In 1920, American Kardex had more than $1 million in gross sales. The company's products were widely used in the health care field ("filling a kardex" became a common term for entering data into a patient's medical record), and demand in Europe was so strong that Rand soon built a factory in Germany.

As competition between American Kardex and Rand Ledger intensified, Mary Rand (James H. Rand, Sr.'s wife and James Rand, Jr.'s mother) brokered a reconciliation between father and son. In 1925, the two men agreed that American Kardex should purchase Rand Ledger. The new company, Rand Kardex, was the largest office supply company in the United States. James Rand, Sr. became the company chairman, while James Rand, Jr. was its president and general manager.

James Rand Jr. soon began expanding the company through acquisitions. He bought companies including Index Visible, Safe-Cabinet, Dalton Adding Machine, Baker-Vawter Ledger, and Library Bureau (founded in 1876 by Melvil Dewey), which was probably the first company to sell filing cabinets commercially (around 1900) and may have invented them.