There’s a pin on the lapel of Jim Edwards’ suit coat that symbolizes 65 years in business. Sometime in 2024, the chairman and owner of Edwards Business Systems and Virginia Business Systems (EBS/VBS) will replace it with one that represents 70 years. He’s looking forward to it almost as much as the company’s next president’s club excursion that will take the top sales producers and their significant others to Paris—a make-right of sorts for the Italy trip that was lost to the pandemic a few years back.
Edwards Business Systems and
Virginia Business Systems
Obviously, losing out on the Italy experience was hardly Edwards’ fault, but providing an equivalent vacation for president’s club winners was his way of “doing what you say you’re going to do.” He doesn’t consider himself a business genius, though maintaining a profitable venture over seven decades—through wars, recessions, 9/11, a pandemic and other disruptions, not to mention significant technology revolutions—suggests otherwise. But that aforementioned philosophy resonates with clients who are adept at spotting BS when they hear it. That applies internally as well; more than 50% of the 130-odd employees are over the age of 50 and have spent decades with the firm.
EBS/VBS is the equivalent of a Norman Rockwell painting to the office technology world. Conservative and family-owned, the EBS portion of the firm was started by Edwards’ father and mother, Joe and Albereta, in West Reading, Pennsylvania in 1954. Forty years later, an acquisition in Richmond, Virginia, added sister company Virginia Business Systems, led by President and CEO Jim Dotter, who is married to Edwards’ eldest daughter, Cathleen. Today, EBS/VBS boasts 11 branch locations throughout Pennsylvania and Virginia.
CEO of Virginia Business Systems
There was a bit of old-school ingenuity involved in the firm’s geographic targeting. In the early days of the company’s growth, Edwards would place a Styrofoam cup mouth down on a map and draw a circle around it. If a market fell within that range of a branch, that told Edwards it was suitable for the dealer’s sales and service offering. The idea was to not overextend those components to a point that would threaten the company’s ability to deliver on promises.
“There’s no rhyme or reason why someone should have to wait to get something serviced, whether it be a typewriter, adding machine, calculator or high-speed MFP,” Edwards declared, with a respectful nod to the technologies the dealer once served. “We started as a service company and we remain one today.”
Target Markets
The dealer serves SMBs generally within 60 miles of its offices (its employees live within those communities as well). Education, both K-12 and higher ed, is a significant target, as are state and local government entities. While EBS/VBS has served enterprise accounts in the past, those customers tend to partner with manufacturer directs, and Dotter notes the core clients are those who value adaptability and responsiveness. In-house leasing has also proven to be a significant differentiator.
A large Konica Minolta dealer, EBS/VBS also relies on Xerox for production units, Lexmark and HP for managed print services, plus KIP and HP on the wide-format end. The dealer saw 57% growth on the production print side a year ago and continues to garner momentum with managed IT, which enjoyed a 39% boost. Its technology partners also represent arguably the OEMs hardest hit by supply chain issues; in turn, equipment revenue for 2022 was down 20% from pre-pandemic levels. Aftermarket revenue was down 16% from 2019 levels.
“We had orders we couldn’t fulfill,” Dotter said. “We had to do loaners for net-new customers and renew some contracts for 12 months as we waited for the equipment to come in, which impacted our top-line revenues significantly.”
The reduction of the supply chain woes earlier this year was akin to the unclogging of a drain. Despite the permanent loss from clients that folded in the aftermath of COVID-19, units have been flying off the shelves for EBS/VBS, resulting in a 25% shift that has the dealer 5% over pre-pandemic levels and growing exponentially. Large orders from school districts are being fulfilled. Aftermarket is surging, and managed IT has billowed 125% over 2019 figures.
Old is New
EBS/VBS has long offered off-lease equipment, which was critical to the firm during the pandemic, and it’s branded these efforts as the ReNew program. This makes it easier for salespeople to reference the offering, which has a robust certification checklist that ensures the quality, durability and sustainability of the refurbished equipment—backed by a service guarantee that stands behind the equipment for five years.
“ReNew has allowed us to get into customers that are looking for value and lower costs,” Dotter said. “They’re not necessarily budget products; these are from tier one manufacturers. It’s a way to offer customers fully functional equipment that may be faster and have more features than they’re looking for, but at a lower cost. There’s the sustainability aspect as well; we’re repurposing the equipment. We also participate in Konica Minolta’s Clean Planet program for recycling used toner cartridges. It’s all part of our sustainability efforts and a tangible way for customers to see it at work.”
In recent years, EBS/VBS revamped its website to provide richer content, from videos and blogs to customer FAQs. It also includes comprehensive pricing information that details how much customers can expect to pay, plus insights into the variables that influence the best and final price. It’s an example of the trend in dealers moving away from the original mission of the website as a digital brochure about the company, and the evolution toward answering the most common questions that end-users have about office technology.
The enhancements to the site are a precursor to EBS/VBS debuting an ecommerce component, according to Dotter. Ensuring the site contains relevant information and answers the most common questions clients may have in their buying journey is advantageous to the dealer, regardless of whether the customer/prospect prefers to interact with a salesperson at some point in the process or would rather research information and complete a transaction on their own.
“We’re going to offer some single-line, single-function printers and small MFPs initially,” Dotter noted. “Over time, we’ll include fully functional MFPs, those A3s we can promote within our geography. Consistent with our approach to service, we’re not looking to go outside our range.”
Dotter’s logic is appealing in its simplicity: if a buyer is going to purchase an item online, it might as well be with EBS/VBS. But it’s not a succession plan for the salesforce, so to speak. The tenure and vast knowledge the dealer’s reps have to offer is core to EBS/VBS’ value proposition, but ecommerce can spark net-new revenue streams within existing accounts. Account reps can follow up to discuss additional services clients didn’t obtain from the dealer online.
Production Prowess
In addition to managed IT, the aforementioned increase in production print sales is one of the primary keys to future growth for EBS/VBS. The dealer installed a Konica Minolta C14000 device for a large graphics company last year. The Xerox Iridesse production press is another cornerstone offering that Dotter believes the dealership can capitalize on. EBS/VBS had just the right candidate in-house to spearhead the division as its director of production print: Mike Horvath, who spent seven years as an office solutions specialist with Xerox in the Philadelphia market.
EBS/VBS has analysts and salespeople from both branches of the company working in tandem to leverage their overall expertise, while both Konica Minolta and Xerox offer an abundance of resources that enabled it to gain more traction in the market. Within the production realm lies opportunities for industrial print, with strong demand for customized labels and packaging applications. Xerox formerly offered the Iridesse only through its direct branches, and Dotter feels its availability to EBS/VBS is a testament to the faith the OEM shows in its partner.
“Our service is exceptional, and that’s a huge differentiator,” he said.
Speaking of growth vehicles, EBS/VBS did its share of acquisitions during its formative years. The most recent deal, in 2017, saw it obtain Imagistx of Winchester, Virginia, which bolstered EBS/VBS’ coverage in the northern part of the state as well as the Shenandoah Valley region. However, as consolidators and private equity firms became more active in the region, Dotter believes it set a value point on companies that was somewhat unjustifiable. That prompted EBS/VBS to pause its activity.
Ideal Candidates
In recent years, the dealer resumed its vetting of M&A candidates whose strengths lie in imaging and managed IT services while falling within or adjacent to its geographic footprint. The latter prerequisite isn’t insignificant—in addition to ensuring an addition meets service and support standards, proximity is essential to maintaining the family feel of a company that’s won numerous “Best Places to Work” awards. And unlike dealers that have extensive M&A track records, EBS/VBS doesn’t have a department dedicated to acquisitions.
“When you talk with the companies that you compete against and are in your same geographic footprint, they have to respect you,” Dotter noted. “They have to know the way you do business and your reputation. A company isn’t going to turn their account base or people over to an organization that they don’t view as reputable.”
Having a questionable reputation is hardly a concern for Edwards. The organization is a pillar in the communities in which it does business, supporting and participating in a laundry list of non-profit organizations that raise funds for health care/research, sports, arts and humanities. Earlier this year, the company took its top performers to Longboat Key, Florida, to enjoy a resort experience. The chance to visit Paris and the Eiffel Tower has the offices buzzing; it will also include a river cruise and a visit to the beaches at Normandy.
“What we do is nothing super human; it’s something anybody else can do,” Edwards said. “When you make good on your promises, it makes people happy. The last couple years, we’ve had people retire who had been with us 30, 40 years. That says a lot about what people think about our company. We pay well, sure, but it’s a lot more than that. We’re a family here, and everyone feels like they’re a part of it.”
Curtain Call
After a wildly successful first quarter for both equipment and aftermarket sales, the EBS/VBS brain trust has ample reason to be more than a little optimistic. Its challenges are all of the uptown variety—getting the ecommerce site up and operational, identifying and implementing a new CRM that will fully integrate with the company’s marketing needs, and promoting internal candidates to fill the voids created by retiring team members.
“We haven’t needed to go outside the organization for managers; we are promoting from within, so I think that strengthens our culture,” Dotter said. “An example is our two VPs of sales, Nicole Behn (EBS) and Monica Wilmore (VBS), who are past ENX Magazine Difference Makers and started as sales representatives with the company years ago. We’re always looking at the personal development aspect. We’re still growing as a company, and continue to bring in talented people who are attracted to our core values and energy of our employees. That makes it important for us to standardize our onboarding program across both companies.”
“We’ve got big plans for this year, with an aggressive growth number,” Edwards noted. “Our employees really knocked it out of the park in the first quarter, and that trend continues. Signed business is up. Things are looking great for us.”
