We are going to make an attempt to compile and publish a “GLOBAL DIRECTORY OF REPROGRAPHICS COMPANIES.”
PLEASE GO TO:
http://globaldirectoryofreprographers.blogspot.com
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Not totally applicable to the “reprographics” industry, but, nevertheless, food for thought about the future …..
This afternoon, I came across an article on a blog related to the printing industry. The most interesting (and, I think, provocative) part of that article were these three sentences:
“Printing Industries of America (PIA) predicts about 9,500 printing companies in the United States will disappear by 2020. That would leave about 27,000 printers nationwide, down from a high just a few years ago of 36,500 and before that more than 50,000.”
If you would like to read the full article – and the article is basically about the role of the U.S. Public Printer and the author’s opinion that the U.S. Government Printing Office (the “GPO”) should do more to drive “government printing business” to printing companies in the private sector – here’s the link to the article:
One of the “big questions” facing the “reprographics” industry is, “will the reprographics industry experience a similar decrease in the number of companies involved in the industry?”
During the period 1998 – 2008, there was a considerable amount of “consolidation” in the reprographics industry. ARC purchased quite a number of reprographers. Thomas purchased companies. A few others were also active with acquisitions. The “Great Recession” has caused tremendous financial trouble for many reprographers. Will all make it through this recession? The quantity of “plans and specs” on a project-by-project basis has reportedly declined over the past 2-3 years, as customers have found ways to reduce print quantities, or, worse, have found ways to avoid having to print. I’m not given to thinking 9 years into the future, which is what the PIA prediction was all about. If I was active in the reprographics business, I’d be worried about what the landscape is going to look like in 2012. By 2012, the A/E/C industry should be experiencing a robust recovery. Will the reprographics industry experience a proportionate rebound?
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Further to the matter of Xerox pulling out of the wide-format market in 2011 in the U.S. and Canada …. this morning, one of my very-frequent blog visitors (who is the President of a reprographics company) sent me an e-mail to let me know about a post about Xerox on another blog site.
In that post, the author talks about Xerox’s decision to pull out of the wide-format market and, in addition, talks about other issues Xerox has had to deal with, both in recent times and past times.
Here’s a (click-on) link to the post on that blog:
After reading that post, I’m not sure how much knowledge the author has about the “wide-format” equipment marketplace. For example, I was not aware that Heidelberg manufactures any “wide-format” systems. (If someone knows anything about a wide-format system from Heidelberg, I’d sure like to know where to find information about it!)
Now, that I’ve mentioned the word, “Heidelberg”, that reminded me of the time I visited Heidelberg, Germany with four reprographer friends, back in 1984 …..
In 1984, not long after we founded ReproCAD, several ReproCAD guys – Sol Magid (NRI), Bob Neely (Neely Repro), Paul Koze (BPS Repro), and Dick Wittrup (Carich Repro) and I, went on an exploratory trip across the big pond (that’s the Atlantic Ocean) to “discover” imaging equipment being developed by European companies; equipment not available in the U.S. All of us visited with Harper-Tunstall in England. Sol Magid, unfortunately, could not join us for the second leg of the trip, which was to Germany.) In Germany, we “discovered” Meteor-Siegen. (Not long after the trip was over, ReproCAD began importing Meteor-Siegen diazo equipment into the U.S.) Anyway, on our trip to Germany, we eventually wound up, after our “business” was concluded, in Heidelberg, Germany. Heidelberg is a “university” town. It is located on the Neckar River. So, on the last day of our trip, we (Paul, Bob, Dick and I) sat in the beer garden of a restaurant that overlooked the Neckar River. It was a beautiful sunny day, clear skies and fantastic icy-cold German beer. Prior to heading south to Heidelberg, we stopped to visit Dick Wittrup’s cousins, who owned a used-Mercedes “workshop”. While there, I, totally on a whim, purchased a re-conditioned 1964 Mercedes 220SEC coupe. I wish I still had that car!
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We’ve done five previous posts on “Reprographics 101” about Florida Reprographics’ Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. If you want to review those earlier posts, enter “Florida Reprographics” in the search window above.
In my mind, the “BIG QUESTION”, at this point, is “will another reprographer sweep in and take over Florida Reprographics’ business by offering a deal to the Bankruptcy Court (and to FR’s creditors) that represents a sweeter deal for FR’s secured and unsecured creditors?
If, in the past, you’ve read lots of articles about businesses that get into financial trouble, it’s likely that you are already aware that, when a company gets into financial trouble, it is not uncommon for “outsiders” to swoop in and attempt to takeover the troubled company. They sometimes do that by negotiating with secured creditors, sometimes even buying the largest secured creditor’s debt-position, which then makes the “hostile takeover party” a “party at interest” in the BK matter.
When I was in business in the Tampa market (prior to selling our company, NGI, to American Reprographics Co (ARC) (Dec 2007), FR was one of NGI’s competitors. FR had a good reputation for service. However, as a businessperson, I found FR’s prices to be ultra low. When you combine a huge fall-off in demand with low-price, that often proves to be a killer after a recession takes hold. And, in the reprographics industry, recessions do happen.
In 2009, FR won a bid for reprographics services for Pinellas County Schools (PCSB).
The “award” PCSB made to FR was a “two-year” award, ending in June 2011. Although it was a two-year award, PCSB has long had a habit of “extending” awards beyond the stated expiration date of the initial contract-period term. The stated “contract value” of that award was $500,000.
Since this was a “competitive-bid” procurement, where “lowest price” prevailed, FR won the award because its “total bid price” was the lowest of all of the reprographers who submitted bids to PCSB.
FR’s bid-price for “large-format black & white” plans on plain white bond paper – $.04 per sq ft. FR’s bid-price for 8 ½ x 11 specs – $.035 per impression.
FR is obligated to provide free pick up and delivery. FR’s new location is on the east-side of Tampa. PCSB’s offices are (and the entire county of Pinellas is) located “west” of Tampa, across Tampa Bay. At gas prices approaching $4.00 per gallon, I would not be a happy camper if I had to do lots of small orders at $.04 per sq ft.
If you want to look at the “bid award” document (which shows all of the prices that FR bid), you can access that document at this (click-on) link:
Going back to the “big question” is it likely that another reprographer will make an attempt to take over FR’s business? If so, might the party be ARC, ABC Imaging, Thomas Repro, Service Point? Or, maybe one of the Tampa reprographers?
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President of the PEiR Group responds to post about the “LINK” deal
Late last night, one of my blog-visitors, Shaun Meany, who is President of ARC’s PEiR Group division, posted a “comment” under the article I posted yesterday, “Facts and Opinions about the LINK deal (Thomas Rep…“:
Rather that just leave Shaun’s comment under the very long-winded post I did, in other words, fearing that Shuan’s comment would not be noticed, I’m posting his comment as a separate post on the blog. Here’s what Shaun’s comment said:
Joel,
Thanks for sharing your interpretation of the LINK DSG announcement.
Keep coming up with the provocative stuff!
By the way PEiR members have access to AbacusPCR software at a discount; which helps keep the FM costs competitive.
Regards,
Shaun
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This post is related to the two posts I’ve already put on the blog about the “LINK DSG” deal.
As previously noted, two of the U.S. reprographics industry’s largest players, Thomas Reprographics and NRI (National Reprographics), have joined with one of the largest players in the U.K. reprographics industry, Callprint, to form LINK Document Solutions Group (LINK DSG.)
Evidently, LINK’s first order of business was to acquire SepiaLine, one the premier developers of ‘cost recovery’ software solutions widely used by U.S. reprographers who offer FM/MPS service programs and sold by SepiaLine resellers to end-user A/E/C (and other) customers.
Yesterday’s announcement caused a lot of discussion (and, I would imagine, some debate) in and around the reprographics industry, and not just in the U.S., but overseas as well. Since posting an article about the LINK deal yesterday, I’ve had over 300 visitors to my blog, and nearly 200 of those visitors have viewed the first post I did about the LINK deal.
Earlier today, I posted a follow-up article about the deal, sharing with my blog-readers certain facts about the deal and my opinions about the deal.
This evening, I received an e-mail from Doug Magid, Pres of NRI and one of the principals involved in LINK DSG; in the e-mail Doug sent me this evening, he provided me a (no pun intended) link to an article that was posted on SepiaLine.com’s web-site, sometime today.
That article contains Sepialine’s explanation of the LINK deal and it also provides an extensive list of Q&A’s. If you want to review that document you can access it by clicking on this link:
http://www.sepialine.com/news/2011/03/questions-and-answers-about-sepialines
Or, if for some reason, you have trouble accessing Sepialine’s document at the foregoing link, you can also access it on my Google Doc’s site; here’s the link to access it that way:
I’ve read the document that SepiaLine authored, and any and all questions I had were answered.
This will likely be the last post on my blog about the LINK DSG deal, unless someone provokes me to go further on this topic.
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On March 1, 2011, Reprographics 101 “broke the news” that Xerox was going to stop selling wide-format in the U.S. and Canada in 2011. We did another (a “follow-up”) post on the blog about Xerox’s decision.
Last night, I received an e-mail from one of my blog-readers, and, to that e-mail, he attached a document prepared by Xerox Corp ….. the title of that document is …..
“Xerox Wide Format Business – Customer Q&A”
I’ve posted that document on my Google Docs site, and here’s a link to access that document:
When you look at the document, you will notice that the date of the document is February 28, 2011, the day before Xerox conducted a nationwide call with its wide-format dealers.
In the e-mail I received last night (from the President of a reprographics company, who is an OCE, but not a Xerox, wide-format dealer), my blog reader said:
“The official notice…not sure if this is what you got for your blog.”
“The interesting line item (in the Xerox document) is regarding software updates…”
“Xerox is saying they will support current 3rd party vendors and at current versions of software.”
“In other words, when Windows 8 comes out and you want to print to it, someone might be in trouble. I can sell against that!”
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Yesterday, I posted an article on the blog to “break the news” (to those who did not already know the news) that Thomas Repro, NRI, and Callprint have joined together to form a new company, “LINK”, to, together, pursue national (and international) FM/MPS deals. Based on the number of e-mails I received yesterday and last night about the “LINK” deal, there is evidently a lot of “discussion” going on, in and around the reprographics community, about this deal. (LINK is actually “LINK DSG”, but I’m only going to refer to LINK as LINK.)
I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before in a previous article, but publishing “press releases” is not the primary purpose of this blog. The primary purpose of this blog is to give my blog readers insights into the “story behind the news.” If all you are interested in are the press releases, and are not interested in the “story behind the news”, then it would probably be best for you to visit irga.com and wide-formatimaging.com to access press releases. Wide-formatimaging.com has significant research resources behind it, allowing it to keep up, on a daily basis, with the myriad of press releases that are issued by companies involved in the reprographics industry and business (including suppliers and equipment companies); Reprographics 101, on the other hand, has limited resources, and there is no way that Reprographics 101 could possibly keep up with the significant flow of press releases that are issued in the industry on a daily basis; not that I’d even want to do that, even if I could. (Quite frankly, I find press releases about new equipment, new software and new supplies to be ultra-boring, with occasional exceptions.)
As to the “story behind the news”, some of the commentary I write on the blog is based strictly on my own personal opinions and observations. But, some of the commentary is based on feedback I get from the parties involved and from blog-readers who take the time to share their insights and opinions with me.
Now that I’ve prefaced the following with the foregoing, let me share with you certain “facts”, as well as several opinions, about the “LINK” deal. First, I’d like to start with “the facts.”
1. Fact: NRI, Thomas Repro and Callprint have not “merged”. They will continue to operate as separate companies.
2. Fact: LINK is an individual company in its own right. One set up (by the participant companies) to pursue national (and international) FM/MPS deals.
3. Fact: Although LINK acquired SepiaLine, SepiaLine will continue to operate as a separate company. It is my understanding that SepiaLine’s management team will continue to manage and operate SepiaLine.
4. Fact: SepiaLine will continue to work with, and will continue to support, resellers of the SepiaLine product line. (Both current resellers and future resellers).
Three “cost-recovery” software program products, taken altogether, probably have 90% market share in the A/E/C industry. Those three software program products are owned by:
· Technesis – Technesis is sold directly by Technesis and is also sold through, and by, Technesis resellers. Technesis’ shareholders are not in the reprographics services business.
· SepiaLine – SepiaLine is sold directly by SepiaLine and is also sold through, and by, SepiaLine resellers. The company, LINK, that now owns SepiaLine is (or I guess I should say, will be) in the business of providing FM/MPS services.
· Abacus PCR – is owned by American Reprographics Co (ARC), the world’s largest reprographics services company. It is my understanding that ARC developed Abacus so that ARC would not be reliant on an outside company (either Technesis or SepiaLine) for the cost-recovery software ARC uses. ARC sells Abacus PCR directly to end-user customers. ARC extensively uses Abacus PCR in its FM operations. It is my understanding that independent reprographers can purchase Abacus PCR. I do not know if ARC has a ‘reseller’ program for Abacus PCR.
Although there are a few other “cost-recovery” software program products on the market, Technesis, SepiaLine and Abacus PCR, on a combined basis, probably have around 90% market share of the A/E/C Industry cost-recovery software market.
My first company, Rowley-Scher Reprographics, had an extensive FM program business. However, we did not use any “cost-recovery” software to support our FM business. And, that’s because “digital” had not yet happened. All “cost-recovery” methods and procedures were manual.
My second company, NGI, started out using Technesis to support FM deals; later on, we moved most of our cost-recovery software needs to SepiaLine. (I personally have no idea or comment on which product, Technesis or SepiaLine, works best for FM cost-recovery; I am not a techie guy and hate to waste time on that kind of thing; fortunately, NGI had a very strong C.T.O. (Mr . Craig Bell) and I.T. team, and they were experts in working with both SepiaLine and Technesis, so I did not have to worry about that, all I had to focus on was “selling” FM deals. Whenever we opened a sales-cycle for a prospective FM deal (or for the renewal of an existing FM deal), our I.T. team provided an “internal consult” as to which cost-recovery software program we would be best off incorporating in our proposal(s.) Our I.T. team was an invaluable resource for our sales and business development team! We did not use Abacus PCR at NGI. ARC acquired NGI in December 2007, and it is my understanding that, subsequent to the acquisition, many, if not all, of the Technesis and SepiaLine products NGI was using prior to NGI’s acquisition by ARC, were replaced by Abacus PCR.
If anyone were to ask me, “Joel, what’s the best cost-recovery software program on the market for A/E/C-type FM/MPS deals?”, I wouldn’t have a clue how to respond to that question.
Before I go on, I don’t want to forget to mention this …. both Technesis and SepiaLine use the term “resellers.” The “simple” definition of a “reseller” is “someone who resells the product.” Not all “resellers” actually resell. Some “resellers” (such as was the case with most of the cost-recovery software NGI purchased) are, themselves, the “customer” for the software. For example, if we were proposing to do, and, later, were successful with our proposal for a staffed or unstaffed FM service program, we (NG) would purchase the cost-recovery software and then install it at our customer’s site as a part of the FM deal. Our customer did not pay us for the software. Our customer paid us for output (per copy, per print, per sq ft, etc.), all costs included, including the cost of the cost-recovery software. However, having just said that, I am aware that some “resellers” actually do “resell” the software.
Given the very sharp downturn in business that firms in the A/E/C industry have experienced – and the resulting downturn in business that most reprographers have experienced – the past three to four years, I think it’s safe to assume that Technesis’ and SepiaLine’s sales have been off the past three to four years. On the other hand, it is my observation [this based on comments Suri (CEO of ARC) made during a recent “earnings call” with analysts who follow ARC) that placements of Abacus PCR have grown substantially since ARC first released Abacus PCR a few years ago. However, that may well be mostly because ARC converted its SepiaLine and Technesis installations to Abacus PCR.
Now, I’d like to share with you my opinions about the “LINK” deal, based on my knowledge of the players involved in the deal and based on my knowledge of the reprographics industry and business “in general.” But, first, let me share with you some comments made by friends who are in the reprographics industry.
Yesterday afternoon, shortly after the news about LINK was released, I received an e-mail from an industry friend (his company uses SepiaLine in its FM deals), and he said this:
“So Sepialine is now owned by my competitor.”
And, last night, I received an e-mail from another industry friend (his company is a SepiaLine reseller) and he said this:
“Regarding Sepialine … how is this going to impact a company like ours, I wonder, which happens to be a Peir Group member but has Sepialine installs? I wonder if the name of the product will change and then what position could that put our company in as a reseller? Wow. Will a reseller (sort of competitor depending on region) be able to get Sepialine in the future?”
Okay, now that I’ve shared those two e-mails with you (and, there were a few others like these), let me get on with my opinions.
1. I don’t think that LINK is going to direct SepiaLine to change SepiaLine’s business in any way shape or form. While I’m positive that LINK will, itself, use SepiaLine cost-recovery software products when LINK does FM/MPS deals, there is, in my mind, no good reason for LINK to direct SepiaLine to discontinue what it has been doing for years. SepiaLine’s cost-recovery software products have, for years, been acquired by reprographers for FM deals those reprographers did and SepiaLine’s cost-recovery software products have been, for years, sold to resellers who, themselves, sell SepiaLine to their end-user A/E/C customers. I think it would be ludicrous to assume that LINK is going to change SepiaLine’s business model. Just a guess, but I would imagine that LINK paid a fairly heft price to acquire SepiaLine (the company), and to think that LINK, the new owner, would want to do anything that would adversely impact SepiaLine’s sales, or stifle SepiaLine’s ability to sell and distribute SepiaLine product, would be a stretch of the imagination.
2. I don’t think that LINK, itself, or LINK’s owners (Thomas Repro, NRI and Callprint), will do anything to compromise the business that SepiaLine’s reprographer-customers do with SepiaLine or to compromise the business that SepiaLine’s customers or resellers do with their end-user A/E/C customers. Some of you (older people) may remember that Xerox, who we all used to get our “Xerox” equipment from, used to operate “Xerox Reproduction Centers” (who competed for our reprographics customers and revenues.) I had discussions about this “potential problem” with management members on Xerox’s service/tech team – my concern was that Xerox’s repair guys would come into my shops to service my Xerox equipment and write down the names of my customers and then give that information to Xerox’s sales reps, who would then go out and try to take away my customers. Never once did that happen. The same thing could be said about OCE and KIP; they both have “direct” sales team members (who will sell to our end-user A/E/C customers, if they can) and they both sell to resellers. They know who our customers are, but never once, in my many years in business, did OCE or KIP take advantage of the knowledge they had about my customers. In Bryan Thomas (Thomas Repro) and Doug Magid (NRI) (and, I suspect this could also be said about Steve Cheek of Callprint), these are two gentlemen of the highest integrity. To think that they would stoop to looking at SepiaLine’s customer base (or prospect database) to find customers to sell FM’s and MPS deals to would be a total stretch of the imagination. If either of these two young men asked me for a personal loan, I would loan them money on a hand-shake. They are totally honest and above board people. They are just like their fathers. To go further, if you are currently a SepiaLine customer or reseller and have concerns, I would urge you to speak directly to Bryan or Doug (or Steve) about your concerns. If you are currently a SepiaLine user or reseller, I don’t see any change, at all, forthcoming in your relationship with SepiaLine. Come to think of it, Thomas and NRI are both very strong financially. To have that behind SepiaLine seems a big plus to me.
3. I don’t think that ReproMAX (the organization or its members) is going to be adversely affected, in any way, by the LINK deal. Just to the opposite, I think the LINK deal strengthens ReproMAX’s position in the marketplace. I would imagine that, if LINK pursues a “national” (or International) FM or MPS deal that requires the participation of non-LINK partners, that ReproMAX’s non-LINK members would be invited to participate in the deal. But, going just a bit further on this line of reasoning, I think that LINK might also consider, when deemed necessary and/or essential, partnering with reprographers who are not ReproMAX members, if that’s what it takes to put together the best deal for a large customer. Here, I’m speaking about independent reprographers who may or may not belong to RSA and/or The PEiR Group.
4. The LINK deal adds another large player (LINK) to the short list of reprographers who have the ability and wherewithal to pursue “national” (and international) FM/MPS deals. ARC has tremendous reach, given the size of ARC and the number of locations ARC operates. ABC has grown its locations to the point where it can compete with ARC for national deals (and I would add that, given the press releases ABC Imaging has released during the past 18 months or so about its successful national FM deals, ABC Imaging has presented significant competition for ARC.) Service Point Solutions has the ability and wherewithal to compete for “national” (and International) FM/MPS deals, but SPS’ geographic reach in the U.S., pales in comparison to the geographic reach of ARC, ABC or LINK. So, the decision by Thomas Repro, NRI and Callprint to form a new company, LINK, to pursue national (and international) FM/MPS deals was, I think, strategic in nature. One of my European-reprographer friends e-mailed me last night (about the LINK deal) to say, “It will be interesting to see if any steak will be served with the sizzle :)”
Announcing a deal is one thing; only time will tell if LINK proves to be successful competing for larger FM/MPS deals.
If you have any comments about this article, please either post them in the comments section or e-mail your comments to me (joel.salus@mac.com).
I especially invite comments from any of the parties involved in LINK and from ARC, ABC Imaging and Service Point Solutions.
Thank you for bearing with me – this was a long-winded post for sure.
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In alphabetical order:
ABC Imaging (HQ’s are in Washington, DC)
Archimedia Solutions Group (HQ’s are in Boston, MA)
American Reprographics Co (ARC) (HQ’s are in Walnut Creek, CA)
LINK DSG (Not sure where HQ’s are, but management contacts are in New York City, Dallas, TX and London, England)
Service Point Solutions (HQ’s are in Barcelona, Spain; US division HQ’s are in Boston, MA)
http://www.servicepointsolutions.net
If you know the names of other companies who should be added to this list, please e-mail me to let me know. Thank you.
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BREAKING NEWS !!!
Two of the strongest and largest reprographics companies in the U.S. – Thomas Reprographics (TR) and National Reprographics (NRI) – and one of the largest reprographics companies in the U.K. – CallPrint – join forces to offer “Managed Print Solutions” nationally and globally.
Their new venture is called “LINK Document Services Group” (LINK DSG).
I found this out when I visited NRI’s web-site, just a few minutes ago. While I don’t yet know all of the nitty-gritty details, I do have some comments to make about this very interesting turn of events.
I will do that when I update this post, sometime this afternoon.
For now, here’s a link to the web-site they must have just recently launched:
UPDATE:
And, here (no pun intended) is a link to the Press Release that “LINK DSG” issued.
LINK DSG has acquired SepiaLine!
Joel’s comments:
This “new development” is a very interesting one, for sure!
I just received a copy of the “Press Release” that was issued March 1st and noticed that LINK DSG HAS ACQUIRED SEPIALINE.
Those of you (in the reprographics business and industry) who know me know that my first company was one of the “founders” of an organization then referred to as ReproCAD. At the time we founded ReproCAD (back in late 1983), there was another organization known as MiniMAX. My first company was also a member of MiniMAX. At some point (and I don’t recall exactly when this happened), ReproCAD and MiniMAX “merged” and became ReproMAX. My first company was a “partner-member” of ReproCAD. When I came out of retirement in 1997 (and in October 1997 joined NGI), I lobbied ReproMAX to let us become a member, but because there were “territorial conflicts”, it took several years before we (NGI) were allowed to join ReproMAX. And, even when we were allowed to join, we had to join as an “associate” member, instead of as a “partner” member.
Today, ReproMAX is a force in the reprographics industry. This is not new news; ReproMAX has been a force in the industry for many years. Nowadays, there are over 100 “member” companies who belong to ReproMAX, and a few ReproMAX members are, on their own, very large enterprises. Rick Bosworth, who has been President of ReproMAX for several years, and who is a long-time reprographics industry veteran, having been President of Service Reprographics (now known as Endocs) for several years before he took the role of President of ReproMAX, has done an outstanding job growing the ReproMAX organization.
However, in spite of the size of ReproMAX (collectively, the combined annual sales of ReproMAX member companies reportedly exceed ARC’s annual sales), ReproMAX, in my opinion, has long been at a disadvantage to ARC (and to ABC Imaging and to Service Point USA) when it comes to proposing “national deals” to very large (national) A/E/C customers. (To a certain extent, this includes “international” A/E/C customers as well.) For years, I’ve been openly critical of this disadvantage, both when I attended ReproMAX meetings (when NGI was a member and I had the opportunity to participate in ReproMAX meetings) and, later on, in articles I’ve written for “Reprographics 101” (i.e., this blog.)
The formation of a new company, LINK DSG, by three very formidable reprographics companies changes, to a certain extent, the “disadvantage” situation, and, in my opinion, represents increased competition for ARC, ABC Imaging, and Service Point Solutions for “national” (larger) A/E/C account deals. Three of ReproMAX’s largest member companies, Thomas Reprographics (TR), National Reprographics (NRI), and Callprint, have formed a company to, together, pursue “national” (and international) deals.
Thomas Reprographics is a large, very well-respected player in the reprographics industry. Thomas Repro’s operations are in Texas (pretty much throughout Texas), in Arizona, in Minnesota, and in Florida. Thomas Repro is led by Bryan Thomas, its CEO, and Bryan is the son of Bill Thomas, one of the smartest (and nicest) guys you will ever meet. Bill Thomas was a very large minority shareholder in ARC and, over time, sold his ARC shares for a ton of money. Bryan did not fall far from that tree; he, in his own right, is a very, razor sharp (and nice) guy, passionate and aggressive. There are other members of the Thomas family who are heavily involved in Thomas Repro’s business, including Kent Long, Bill Thomas’ son-in-law. Brianna Thomas-Long, Bill’s daughter and Kent’s wife, who is Director of Marketing for Thomas. Some (or all) of the former owners of “A/E the Graphics Complex” (a company that Thomas Repro acquired a few years ago), I’m speaking of the Gremillon family, participate in the management of Thomas Repro’s business, and like Bryan, Bill, Kent and Brianna, the Gremillon’s are very, very sharp people – and well respected “players” – in the reprographics business and industry. Taken altogether, Thomas Repro is an outstanding company, well respected by its customers, and has one of the most formidable management teams to ever grace the reprographics industry. Thomas Repro is more than 50 years old. Thomas Repro is not an easy company to compete with. (As to the latter, I know that from my own, personal experience; in other words, that’s not just an opinion.)
Similar to Thomas Repro, National Reprographics (NRI) is also a large, very well-respected player in the reprographics industry. NRI’s operations are in Boston, in New York, in New Jersey, in Philadephia, in Washington, DC and in San Francisco. NRI is led by Ellen Feuer (Chairperson of the Board of Directors) and by Doug Magid, President. Doug is a graduate of Duke and earned his master’s degree from the Wharton School of Finance (Univ of Penn). Doug is one of the reprographics industry’s brightest stars, razor sharp, passionate and aggressive. His father and reprographics-business-mentor, Sol Magid, was the prior President of NRI, and like Bill Thomas of Thomas Repro, Sol is very smart and very well respected by all who know him. Like Thomas Repro, NRI has a very deep, very experienced management team. NRI has very long-standing relationships with its key accounts. NRI is more than 100 years old. NRI is not an easy company to compete with. (As to the latter, and just like Thomas Repro, I know that from my own, personal experience; in other words, that’s not just an opinion.)
About Callprint … while I’ve met Steve Cheek (Callprint’s Managing Director) on a few occasions, I, admittedly, know very little about Callprint’s operations or reputation, but I did visit Callprint’s web-site to see what “they say” about their company, and here’s what I found on Callprint’s web-site: “Callprint was established in 1992. Its original founders, Terry Rutter, Alan Cheek and Norman Krangel had previously held executive roles in major UK reprographic companies and with their guidance Callprint has evolved into a well established, socially responsible and customer focused organisation. Callprint has grown organically and by acquisition to its current turnover in excess of £16,000,000 (approximately $26 mil USD). With over 220 employees, it now has Twenty One branch locations plus twelve FM sites of which six are fully equipped and manned Reprographic Centres.” Since I’ve personally met and talked to Steve Cheek, I am aware that he is a very sharp guy. And, he has a deep team supporting him in his efforts to grow Callprint’s business in the U.K. I’m not sure of the “rankings” of reprographics businesses in the U.K., but I think that Service Point’s U.K. operations rank #1 in size and that Hobs Reprographics and Callprint are the other major players in the U.K. reprographics marketplace. But, all in all, Callprint is formidable player in the U.K. reprographics marketplace. (Note that both ARC and ABC Imaging have acquired companies in London, but it’s my understanding that ARC ‘s and ABC Imaging’s operations in the U.K. are considerably smaller (in sales revenues) than Service Point, Callprint and Hobs.
Thomas Reprographics, NRI and Callprint all have extensive experience in the “FM” business, an important segment of the A/E/C reprographics business. Thomas, NRI and Callprint have all grown both organically and by acquisition. The combination of these three firms to form the nucleus of a venture (a company) to pursue “national” (and “international”) deals with larger A/E/C industry firms (and I would imagine they will pursue deals in the non-AEC sector as well) is a brilliant one. Well, folks, that’s simply my opinion, of course. As I said earlier, their venture will, I think undoubtedly, represent increased competition for ARC, ABC Imaging, and Service Point Solutions with respect to the pursuit of “national” (and “international) deals with larger A/E/C customers.
Both ARC and ReproMAX have announced, and are in the process of “rolling-out”, products that are geared towards A/E/C “document management” and “project collaboration.” ARC is rolling-out “PlanWell Collaborate” and ReproMAX is rolling-out “cMAX”. I’m not the right person to compare and/or evaluate PlanWell Collaborate and cMAX. But, I would be willing to publish an article on my blog that compares these two products and invite ARC and ReproMAX to send me their “talking points” for an article. Anyway, it will certainly be interesting to see how these two products “stack up” against one another.
In the “FM” business, it is both necessary and critical to have software (and hardware that complements the software) that “tracks and accounts for” output generated on equipment the FM-MPS-Vendor-Reprographer installs at customer sites. It was a brilliant move on ARC’s part to develop “Abacus PCR”. And, from what I’ve heard, Abacus PCR is an excellent product. ReproMAX’s members (and others in the reprographics business who offer FM services) have relied, for the most part, on the two other “primary” software products developed for “tracking and accounting for output”, SepiaLine and Technesis. At my former company, we had an extensive FM business; early on, we used mostly Technesis, but, later on, we relied mostly on SepiaLine. A recent rumor in the reprographics industry put forth that ARC was interested in acquiring SepiaLine. Had that happened, all non-ARC-reprographers would have been at a disadvantage to ARC. Had ARC acquired SepiaLine, ARC could have simply discontinued selling SepiaLine, forcing non-ARC reprographers to switch to Technesis’ product or to ARC’s own Abacus PCR product. [EFI, the creator of the popular family of “Fiery” RIP products, has, over the years, acquired several, of not most, of the companies (Management Graphics, ColorBus, Splash, to name a few) who sold competing RIP products. In my opinion, EFI’s “consolidation” of the RIP business, reduced competition and was not good for reprographers (or printing companies or copy center businesses)]. And, if ARC had acquired SepiaLine, that same opinion would have applied. Okay, the rumor that ARC was interested in acquiring SepiaLine is, as I said, just a rumor. Now, that does not matter. We now know that LINK DSG has purchased SepiaLine. Smart move.
“Healthy competition” is good for the A/E/C marketplace. When A/E/C customers have “choices” (competing vendors), they benefit from that. And, anything that benefits the reprographics industry’s customers benefits the reprographics industry as well. It will be very, very interesting to see how LINK DSG affects competition going forward!
Reprographics 101 