Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
Little more than three years ago, Mike Archer, Lee Christensen and Jim Beck recognized an opportunity to create a dealership for office equipment that would be both locally owned and managed. The three men had worked together for a number of years at a very large office products company and seen how corporate inefficiencies diminished their time and abilities. They had also seen how employees there worried over job security and as a result were unable to really focus on their work.
At the time, a handful of office equipment businesses were already operating along the Wasatch Front. But the three men wanted their company to offer service that exceeded the rest, and they knew that could only be achieved through efficient management, a stable environment and confident employees.
In 1999, Mike, Lee and Jim acquired Bowlden Business Systems, a company that for 21 years was a major supplier of office equipment to Utah schools. They renamed the company Automated Business Products or ABP and recruited the most experienced and talented people they knew.
In a short time, ABP expanded from serving only the education market to supplying the commercial and government sectors as well. The company also began offering more brands of equipment, including Ricoh/Savin, Kyocera Mita, HP and Xerox as well as service and supplies for Canon products.
Since acquiring Bowlden and founding ABP in 1999, Mike, Lee and Jim have proven their business philosophy. Automated Business Product's revenue has quadrupled. It has also gone from being one of Savin's smallest dealers to one of the top 35 in the country. And ABP was recently listed among the 100 Elite Dealers in Office Dealer, a national trade publication for the office products industry.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
