The odometer on American Business Machines (ABM) will soon turn over to 100 years. The company was founded in 1925 during the heart of President Calvin Coolidge’s administration, the year Chrysler and Sears also debuted and Mount Rushmore National Monument was dedicated. Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby” was published, and the Grand Ole Opry began broadcasting as country and western music complemented jazz in the rich tapestry of American culture.
The Bakersfield, California, dealer’s name harkens back to a period before automation, yet it also embodies a timeless quality that evokes the concept of driving commerce via any set of tools that can continuously evolve. In that regard, ABM has the perfect steward in General Manager Ryan Jones, who represents the third generation of family ownership. Jones, who assumed the mantle of leadership from parents Richard and Judee Jones (both semi-retired), is a prime example of how product and service diversification, when properly executed, can rewrite and repave the fortunes of any firm, regardless of its born-on date.
The younger Jones is proving to be as Teflon-coated as his grandfather, founder Wallace T. Jones, who had to endure the Great Depression and World War II among other business disruptions. Ryan Jones emerged battered and bruised from the pandemic, yet his resolve is unshaken. And while it’s been decades since the firm offered typewriters, calculators and filing systems—fueled by Remington Rand products—the company is hard-charging on the strength of the Canon portfolio and a litany of ancillary bow-to-stern offerings that leave virtually no aspect of today’s client base untouched.
“The first day I started working at ABM 30 years ago, my dad said the reason he and my grandfather were successful was because they offered over-the-top customer service,” Jones said. “Regardless of what you sell, you need to focus on that in everything you do. If the customer service isn’t there, from sales through to billing, admin, service technicians and the delivery drivers, you’re not going to do well. The legacy of the Jones family and ABM is going to be customer service, without waver.”
The diversifications, many of which have been introduced in the last 20 years, include managed IT, production print, document management, security cameras and access systems, VoIP, BDR tools, a print shop and, more recently, apparel/embroidery printing. And Jones isn’t nearly finished. He’s been investigating health care hardware, 24/7 security management and client landing pages (a possible precursor to ecommerce)—with operations consolidated into a new state-of-the-art headquarters to be built on a five-acre plot near the Bakersfield airport, close to an Amazon distribution facility.
For the $20 million dealer—which exclusively serves Central and Southern California verticals including education, health care, legal and government—managed IT proved to be a springboard into many of the newer offerings. “One advantage we have over a traditional IT, apparel shop, print shop and others is our sales force,” Jones noted. “The smaller companies have one person doing the selling, then coming back to do all the work behind the scenes. Our people make calls for MFPs and then ask clients about phone systems, apparel, promotional items, business cards, security systems and other things. The ability to discuss so many ancillary items provides us with a huge advantage over our competition.”
The Long Rebound
The pandemic recovery has been a long and sometimes frustrating journey for Jones and Co. The 2019 campaign saw a high-water mark in sales, exceeding $20 million. That figure slipped to $16 million in 2020, and Jones needed to reconcile the downturn via layoffs and furloughs, which saw the company operating with a skeleton crew for about six months. The staff was gradually refortified, but then ABM suffered the indignity of having local businesses, including some clients, poach some of its talented employees. The wounds have healed and ABM added 20 employees in the past year to bring its staff up to 100-plus, and the company is projecting up to an 8% increase in revenue for this year.
Jones said the defections were “a little disheartening” considering the pilfering by clients, and it had an impact on company morale. Local government, in particular, was able to offer high salaries and benefits packages that are generally unmatched by the private sector.
Just prior to the pandemic, Jones considered expanding geography-wise. “After COVID hit, we took a huge step back,” he noted. “I do have aspirations of eventually launching into other states, but at this point we’re really focused on rebuilding the areas we currently target.”
The new facility will go a long way toward solidifying ABM’s corporate culture. Jones hopes to break ground on the new headquarters in the next 12 months and consolidate much of the company’s seven local facilities under one roof. The concept is that of a tech company, with the facility acting as a showroom that demonstrates its security offerings, managed IT, apparel and other products and services. Plans call for a courtyard with an area that will allow ABM to hold company picnics. The building will also offer a full gym, locker rooms, a lounge area and cafeteria.
“It’s a beautiful piece of property, and we’re going to build something really spectacular,” he said. “Right now, we have so many properties spread throughout Bakersfield, and this building will allow us to get back under one roof and really get our culture going again to where I can see all the employees on a daily basis. I’m super-excited about it.”
Fabric-ating Business
In the course of growing its offerings, ABM benefitted from identifying and completing acquisition opportunities for both the print shop and apparel operations, scenarios in which proprietors with experienced staff had reached the point where they wanted to retire and pass on the business. The acquisition of a screen printer was the most recent. Jones had sold a phone system to the owner previously, and when his rep informed him the client was looking to exit the business, he orchestrated a deal that enables ABM to provide apparel printing/embroidery.
Jones also placed an order for dye sublimation equipment that allows him to print and transfer images onto clothing, towels and blankets, among other fabric-type products. Customized products will be an ideal fit for education-based customers and other organizations in need of logoed/promotional goods.
“A lot of our competitors don’t have the infrastructure or the money to invest back into their company,” Jones noted. “Our sales force can generate a lot of leads that allow us to send in the product specialists to offer the different products.”
A salesperson at heart, Jones is always on the hunt for opportunities to leverage ABM’s catalog. Not long ago, he called an old friend in the oil drilling sector and referenced the apparel company, which was an optimal fit for logoed safety equipment (hats, overalls, etc.) with reflective tape. ABM had no previous business with the firm, and now there are opportunities for office machines, security cameras and phone systems in addition to the apparel.
“Apparel is a nice niche, and now we go in there and have a warm call and are able to sell other products,” he noted.
Securing Profits
One of the hottest revenue-generating offerings in recent years has been security cameras and access control systems. Early on, ABM took on the Axis line after it was acquired by Canon, and Jones also partnered with Verkada on its offering of cloud-based camera systems. While the venture yielded 20% growth in the past year, Jones has designs on incorporating a 24/7 monitoring system within the new facility, removing all the surveillance and response burden from the client.
“As an owner, it’s frustrating when you get a call at 3 a.m. that someone smashed glass, broke into your facility and stole something,” he said. “We’re taking more of a proactive approach. We want to provide a service in which the owner doesn’t have to get out of bed, that we can either prevent the break-in or have the manpower to clean up the mess and dispatch someone to fix the glass in the morning.”
Jones has taken a fearless approach when it comes to production equipment. From the early part of his career, he enjoyed success in serving in-plants, commercial shops, direct mail houses and other spaces. Even when ABM was a more modest-sized performer, Jones jumped at the opportunity to sell the Canon imagePRESS 7000. He convinced his father to add one to ABM’s showroom, which was directly responsible for moving 10 units.
Emboldened by the initial success with the 7000, Jones sought out reps with production experience to gain more traction and groomed current members of the team to become proficient. The opportunities continued to roll in; Canon acquired Océ in 2009, which led to ABM offering the varioPRINT series. Today it remains a growth vehicle; in July, ABM placed three imagePRESS 1135 machines with a client, which Jones says represents Canon’s first multiple installations of that model on the West Coast.
“We have zero fear of talking to a large education client with a big print shop and installing a [varioPRINT] TITAN or ULTRA, then going after their [MFP] fleet,” Jones noted. “We take the same approach with anything else we do well; we just make sure our techs are trained and able to service them. Then we go for it!”
Canon has been a cornerstone of ABM’s catalog ever since Richard Jones attended a NOMDA show in Las Vegas in the late 1970s. He was in search of a line to help the company better compete against Xerox, which had been “destroying” ABM’s Remington Rand copier line. “Dad really picked a winner in Canon—it’s been a blessing to our family,” Jones noted. “Canon has grown with us, and we’ve grown with them throughout the years.”
Building Blocks
Much of Jones’ thrust will be geared toward building staff, particularly in the sales department. The rapid growth in ancillaries and the solid consistency of MFP and managed IT sales makes ABM an attractive employment destination, and Jones has been fielding calls from experienced, quality candidates. He’s also seeking to develop younger prospects in both sales and service.
“There are little things we’re navigating through daily in order to continue to grow these ancillary products and the business overall,” he said. “It’s challenging in itself, but it’s fun to go through. We have great areas with huge potential, and we just need to find the right people to come in and start building upon the foundation. The future looks bright.”
Trading Oil for Toner: Ryan Jones Keeps Digits, Parlays Talent for Sales into a Successful Career
The mother-son bond has always been a difficult one, fraught with maternal panic, especially when the child displays fearless tendencies. We’ve all heard the “Christmas Story” admonition of “you’ll shoot your eye out” with a BB gun. For Ryan Jones and his mother, Judee, fearing the loss of a limb was involved.
Granted, Ryan wasn’t a 9-year-old getting into mischief; he was a young man working in the oil fields of California. But apron strings don’t easily fray, and Judee lived in dread of her son losing one or more of his fingers while working with heavy equipment that can inflict severe bodily damage in a heartbeat. She suggested he work for his dad under less harrowing circumstances as an ABM salesperson.
“I had no clue what my dad did,” Ryan Jones admitted. But the young man had already developed a legendary love for wheeling and dealing that dated back to his junior high school days, so he gave it a shot. Armed with business cards, the younger Jones pounded the streets, introducing himself to local businesses.
“I started to get a taste for sales,” he said. “The competitive side from athletics has always stuck with me. I love winning and I love to sell, although now I’m selling a company as opposed to a copier.”
As the types of units the Joneses sold outgrew dad’s Chevy Blazer, the family purchased a used Ryder truck. Ryan remembers bouncing around town in the truck, sweating through 100-plus degree temperatures to move the equipment.
“It was really a blue-collar, grassroots type of beginning,” he added.
His parents were also instrumental in keeping their son’s ambitious plans in check. Ryan always wanted to jump into bold initiatives with both feet, but mom and dad were able to temper his enthusiasm.
“They were always there to keep me grounded,” he said. “It was important to build toward goals, because they realize I have a lot on my plate. It was important that, in whatever we did, we could always guarantee great support and customer service. As we’ve grown, they’ve seen the successes from some of my ideas, so they’re a little more lenient when I want to try new things.”
