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DEALER PROFILE
Now a successful multi-million pound
business with 20 employees and a
smart four-storey headquarters, the
Stockport-based dealership started
out as a way for ex-banker Janet
Bowden to earn some money and
maintain a good work-life balance
when raising her young son.
Before swapping the world of
banking for printers, Janet had worked
at Rothschild, where she was mainly
involved in the provision of finance
and leasing agreements to fund office
equipment purchases. This experience and
the exposure to the print and copy market
that it entailed presented Janet with an
opportunity to make some extra money
whilst her son was still a baby.
“I had built up a strong network of
contacts in the industry and quite a bit
of knowledge, so Rothschild asked me to
get involved in collecting and selling on
repossessed office printers and copiers.
Initially I saw it as something I could do
almost as a hobby, to earn a bit of spare
cash whilst staying at home,” she explained.
Janet set up Woodbank Office Solutions,
a name derived from the area in Stockport
where she lived, and started working
from home. Armed with only a handful
of contacts and a full page advert in the
Yellow Pages, the business grew from there.
“The early days were quite fun,” she
said. Each day involved travelling to pick up
repossessed machines, which she stored in
her garage and lounge. Once they were sold,
Janet would load the copiers into the back
of her car and deliver them to customers.
“Things were a lot different back
then,” she said. “There was no internet, no
Facebook or email. You had more face-to-
face contact with your customers. And in
those days the machines were really heavy
and bulky, not like today’s models which
are much more compact and lightweight.”
Service revenue
In 1995 Konica Minolta approached Janet
about becoming a reseller, and at this
point the business took off. “Expanding
the business to offer new equipment also
provided us with the opportunity to build
an additional revenue stream through
service,” Janet explained.
Woodbank Office Solutions recruited
new sales staff and engineers, and
turnover increased steadily to the extent
that in 2003 Janet was able to buy
Woodbank House, a beautiful listed
building in Stockport. “The building had
four floors and initially we only occupied
one,” she said. Today it houses all 20 of
the company’s employees, a showroom
and a workshop for its five engineers, as
well as warehousing capacity. Generally,
the company holds around 60 devices in
stock, as well as parts and consumables.
Turnover doubled
Four years ago Woodbank was appointed a
KYOCERA dealership. “Taking on KYOCERA
as a second line was the best decision
I made. The ability to offer a different
proposition and enter new markets, such
as education, with a range of lower cost
entry-level printers and MFPs enabled
us to go for tenders, and we were really
successful with that – we doubled turnover
that year,” said Janet.
Woodbank conducts most of its
What started out
as a hobby…
business in the north, in Manchester,
Liverpool, Leeds and Sheffield, but it also
services customers further afield. “We have
a nationwide MIF and provide a national
service for several large national clients, of
which Royal Mail is one,” explained Janet.
“We’ve even done a deal in Germany.”
Two years ago, it opened an office in
Liverpool so that it could provide a local
service to businesses in the area, and it
plans to open a third base in Leeds in the
next few months.
Business development
Woodbank recorded a turnover of £2.8
million this year and is targeting £4 million
by July 2018. It is currently recruiting
additional sales people and recently
appointed a marketing manager to drive its
PR, marketing and social media activities in
support of business development.
“We’re actively targeting new business
for further growth and investing in
additional sales resource to further expand
our presence,” said Janet.
Summing up the strengths of the
company she founded as a hobby and
has seen grow into a multi-million pound
enterprise, Janet said: “We have a great
reputation and are very close to 100%
customer retention. The business has
a superb culture and a great team and
everyone plays a key part in ensuring our
ongoing success.”
Woodbank
Office
Solutions
recruited new
sales staff and
engineers,
and turnover
increased
steadily to the
extent that
in 2003 Janet
was able to
buy Woodbank
House, a
beautiful listed
building in
Stockport.
Back in 1989, it’s fair to say that print and copy dealerships were in the main
set up and run by men. Woodbank Office Solutions is a notable exception.
Janet Bowden
