Whether it’s Rome, Cabo San Lucas or Amelia Island, Florida, Joe Blatchford maintains the same routine. The CEO of Valencia, California-based Image 2000 makes the rounds to thank each of his employees as they enjoy their president’s club reward. Some are flabbergasted; for many, these excursions represent a trip of a lifetime, and they feel indebted toward Blatchford. But without the employees’ performance, he reminds them, the trip wouldn’t be possible.
It doesn’t require a Caribbean adventure or European jaunt for Blatchford to express the gratitude he feels for his employees and their contributions toward making Image 2000 the largest independent dealer in southern California. There are the shout-outs in the monthly company newsletter when a client conveys its appreciation for an Image 2000 employee who went the proverbial extra mile in providing quality service. And Blatchford will pass along a $25 gift card as another token gesture. The surprise results in a smile and a boost to the recipient’s day.
These are the things that float through Blatchford’s mind whenever the phone rings and the voice on the other end is that of a noted industry consolidator, gauging his interest in selling Image 2000. It happens often, and he’s heard from all the prominent players. Blatchford’s no-thanks answer is as consistent as his resolve. He doesn’t want to lose the personal touch, and at “barely over 60,” he’s not ready to throw in the towel.
Blatchford and his partner, Rich Campbell, have been through too much to stop now. They remember how tight the early years were, when they took a company in Wholesale Copiers that refurbished and resold used Canon and Xerox equipment in the early 1990s and changed the model, offering new boxes through then-Royal Copystar. Those first six years were the toughest. In fact, when they set out to rename Wholesale Copiers, Blatchford sought a technology-sounding moniker and came up with Image 2000. It was 1992, and in his heart, he hoped to keep the company afloat until the year 2000.
There’s nothing worse than the feeling of needing to convert a sale in order to make payroll. It once came down to that for Blatchford. Those days may be long gone, but even now he doesn’t use a bank credit line; all purchases are self-funded. Battle-tested, Blatchford has watched companies attempt to penetrate the SoCal market, only to fail. For the most part, it’s just Image 2000 and the OEM directs.
“It’s a hard market,” said Blatchford, who once had a gun shot shatter his car windshield when the company resided in Van Nuys, though he was referring to business conditions. “To build a company our size in southern California is extremely difficult, and a lot of companies have tried and failed. The fact that we’re surviving and have a good operation, there’s a lot of value in that.”
Pandemic Reset
Blatchford may feel as if he’s gotten over a hump, but between the pandemic and manufacturer supply chain issues, he knows the challenges are ongoing. The company, which has branches in Bakersfield, Fresno, Inland Empire, Lakewood, Orange County, Tarzana and Las Vegas, was on the brink of $34 million in revenue when the pandemic struck. That figure dropped to $26 million at the lowest point, but has recouped and is trending back in the $30 million range.
Despite the downturn, Image 2000 refused to turn any of its 135 employees loose, a decision aided by Paycheck Protection Program funding. While equipment sales surprisingly remained consistent, a decline hit the contract base side, and Blatchford sought to redouble his efforts in that regard. With Los Angeles a veritable ghost town, Image 2000 benefitted from its solid base of hospital contracts, which did its part in keeping the clicks and service revenue flowing in. And with schools returning to the classroom, supply orders and service calls have picked up, namely in Bakersfield and Fresno.
“Unfortunately, the traffic has returned, but that means people are coming back to work,” Blatchford observed.
Image 2000 gains much of its equipment revenue from carrying Kyocera Copystar and Sharp, with the latter providing significant growth the past five years. Blatchford has the distinction of being the largest Copystar dealer in the nation, bigger than the next nine performers combined. Toshiba, Lexmark, HP and RISO (duplicators) have also helped Image 2000 gain traction, as did naming Jeff Rudisel—a longtime Ricoh sales manager—its executive vice president in 2007.
But while Blatchford has been judicious in evaluating whether change is warranted in many aspects of the operation, the need to bolster the contract base has also highlighted areas in which Image 2000 can leverage change to its advantage. He notes the company has been slow to ramp up with managed network services and would benefit from enhancing its ability to sell software solutions. Blatchford has huddled with his management team to devise a compensation program and is using the blueprint provided by Pros Elite Group to set it up properly.
“I’ve seen a lot of MNS companies set up their NOC, go crazy and start losing money,” he said. “It’s a difficult space to be profitable. We’ve been pushing on this for the last year and are looking to provide services and equipment to companies that are going remote, which is a big thing for a lot of tech companies in California. As part of that package, we’re going to be able to provide network support, and solutions software helps tie it all together.”
High-end inkjet is another area of opportunity for Image 2000, particularly with the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c production printer. Blatchford is also pushing deeper into the VoIP phone market, which is enticing due to its aftermarket opportunities.
“We don’t want to be so focused on moving boxes, as we have in the past, and want to start looking at other areas that will provide recurring revenue,” Blatchford observed. “More companies are moving in that direction because the demand for midsized copiers is shrinking. It’s been a slow process for us, but we’re starting to move forward.”
Communicating Greatness
One key move the company made in 2020 was creating a new customer service position, a point person who quarterbacks communication between the dealer and the customer. This role covers setting appointments for service and installation, as well as following up with the client to ensure that the experience was satisfactory and to ferret out any possible issues.
Blatchford bristles at the thought of not getting an actual person on the phone. As such, when an incoming call invariably goes to voicemail, support has one hour in which to respond. It provides a nice one-two punch for feedback, supplementing the survey responses it generates through CEO Juice.
“It’s been very effective as more of a preventive method of providing service, as opposed to reacting later,” he said. “Once that service, installation or training is done, we’ll call back to make sure everything went OK. That really provides us instant feedback on our customer service performance.”
That extended level of customer service is another tool in Image 2000’s belt, one that can help combat low-cost pricing propositions that are fairly customary in a geography teeming with manufacturer direct operations. Due to the volume of business it does with Kyocera and, to a lesser but growing extent, with Sharp, Image 2000 procures some of the most competitive pricing for units, allowing it to be more competitive in an environment where down-the-street business tends to border on cutthroat. In the case of one line it does not currently carry, Image 2000 must contend with a direct’s all-you-can-eat usage platform for clicks.
Blatchford feels Image 2000 has penetrated the SoCal market effectively and is making greater inroads to the northern part of the state. Las Vegas is something of an enigma; it’s hard to pin down quality sales reps, especially when “they can make more money parking cars than selling equipment,” Blatchford offers. And the population turnover adds another wrinkle, but he sees the city—as well as Inland Empire and northern California—as offering the best growth potential.
Image 2000 briefly made a foray into Arizona by opening a branch in Tucson. But Blatchford found the market didn’t jibe with what the dealership was looking to accomplish and sold that operation to Sharp. He’s also found the acquisitions route to be needlessly expensive, particularly when Image 2000 is positioned to take business from struggling counterparts. For Blatchford, the road to growth is paved with hiring quality salespeople who can bolster the dealer’s organic initiatives.
Given the dealer’s market was already evolving prior to the pandemic—and as many have noted, COVID-19 accelerated those changes—Blatchford and Campbell are adjusting to ensure Image 2000 can break out of the gate quicker as businesses continue their return to the office. “The mid-range MFPs won’t sell as many, so that means either moving more A4 product or going to the high end, such as the Kyocera TASKalfa or high-end Sharp color units, which are still getting the clicks,” Blatchford said. “They also offer a decent margin on the product. There’s a surge in the inkjet business, especially for print shops.
“You have to diversify; you can’t go back to thinking everything will come back and be hunky dory, because it won’t. For us, it’s looking at sources of recurring revenue, and that’s where phones, solution sales and MNS come in.”
Plush Accommodations
Image 2000 certainly has set the stage for growth with its new facility, acquired in 2017 after 20-plus years in Van Nuys. The nearly $1 million investment included gutting the insides to produce a state-of-the-art facility with a showroom, training room, conference space, lounge area and outdoor patio. Blatchford believes the accommodations have helped significantly to attract quality employees while providing a boost to team member morale.
Blatchford appreciates the value of input from employees, to the point where he relies on them to suggest how Image 2000 can be a better corporate citizen. The dealer supports many local and global causes suggested by employees, from Red Cross contributions in support of the Australian fires and an explosion in Beirut to more local efforts such as a fund created for the first Los Angeles police offer to pass away from COVID-19.
“I listen to the employees and my kids,” he said. “We have a house in Mexico and donate its use to organizations such as Make-A-Wish. Sometimes it’s as simple as supporting the Burbank High School baseball team. But there’s no real set plan. It’s just based on what the employees want to support. We feel obligated to help as much as we can.”
Blatchford employs an open-door policy with his employees as one key to cultivating an appealing culture. Given the dealer has a number of employees who’ve been on board for 20-plus years, he believes the policy is effective. The objective is addressing issues before they cause employees to look elsewhere.
In addition to the newsletter/employee shout-outs, tokens of gratitude, monthly lunches and barbecues cooked by the managers, the open door policy is aimed at fostering that feeling of family. But as the family continues to swell in size, it can become a challenge to maintain culture.
“I’d rather know about a potential issue ahead of time, rather than finding out after they quit,” he said. “It can be difficult; sometimes they’ll walk right into my office when I’m busy. They can address questions and concerns, or even make suggestions. But if you come into my office with a problem, you’d better have a recommendation on how to fix it.”
Target Plans
Thus, as Blatchford and Campbell continue to facilitate growth through MNS, phones and software solutions, the push toward growing his contract base will continue to be a priority in 2022. There is a considerable nugget of opportunity for addressing IT needs with firms that have fewer than 50 PCs and desktop computers, which speaks to a large portion of the Los Angeles market. Blatchford contracted with the aforementioned Pros Elite to help train the dealer on managed IT service, with one of Image 2000’s fastest-growing branches targeted for the initial training. If all goes well, the program will be implemented in the other facilities.
“Who knows what will happen next; we get through the pandemic, only to be confronted with a supply chain shortage,” he said. “But we’ve always been able to survive and adapt. I have faith in our people being able to elevate Image 2000 to the next level.”
