It’s not Office Value, Office Depot or Staples, and that’s the way Office Experts likes it. In fact, the owners of the seven-person firm think not being a big box operation is the edge that will keep them competitive.
Partners Rob Langdon, Parley Bingham, Paul Skinner and business manager Patty Langdon say Office Experts is a business-to-business company that excels at efficiency, simplicity, accuracy, productivity and personal service.
All the partners worked at one time or another for other office supply firms, including one of the large corporate companies. But, according to Langdon, they all left to launch Office Experts because they felt the ideas they had for improving the businesses owned by others weren’t being listened to.
Langdon explained their former bosses would send them to trade shows, where they picked up new ideas; but, returning to the workplace and trying to sway their employers to pick up some of the new concepts left the threesome frustrated. So they became the competition.
“We had a lot of good ideas that other owners didn’t share, so we decided to branch off and start our own company,” Langdon said. Pooling their resources together, they formed Office Experts in April 2008.
They feel new technologies are changing the way office supplies, furniture and other workplace items are purchased, and they intend to stay on the cutting edge.
For instance, they use a tech product called JumpCart, a small, handheld cordless scanner that serves as an order management system. When customers need products, they scan bar codes on product packages or from a catalog or order form custom made for them by Office Experts. They then plug the scanner into a cable attached to a PC, and the information is sent to the Office Experts warehouse where the order is expedited and delivered.
Office Experts offers office and school supplies, office furniture, break room supplies, custom stamps, janitorial supplies, safety and security equipment, printing services, and ink and toner supplies.
The company already has nearly 600 clients. While the partners acknowledged businesses are buying fewer office products right now, they said they are coping with the downturn by growing their customer base. “Purchasing is down but clients are up,” Bingham said.
They started the business just as the economy started going south; however, according to Bingham, “we made it through this year without a business loan and hit our break-even point.”
Patty Langdon said she feels the economy throughout the Valley has reached its lowest point and is slowly improving. “We like to think we’ve seen the worst of it,” she said.
The foursome puts in long hours, but even that is improving. “Initially, we put in 16-hour days. Now we’re down to 12,” said Patty.
They continue to evolve ideas for their business and recently attended a trade show. They’re determined to stay up-to-date with everything that’s new in their industry. “Some companies are dinosaurs; they’re very slow to change,” Bingham said. Office Experts never intends to fall into that category.
