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DEALER PROFILE
Family and business do mix
Michael (Mick) Bailey established
EBM in 2005, setting up shop in
a 500 sq. ft. unit in Witham. As a
service engineer with over 25 years’
experience, his focus was firmly
on creating a company that had
excellence in customer service at its
core – that philosophy remains as
pertinent today as it was on day one.
EBM quickly developed an excellent
reputation for its exceptional service
provision and just three years later, had
grown exponentially. By 2008, it had
expanded in size four-fold and occupied
an additional three units on the same
site – bringing its total square footage to
2,000 sq. ft. It was at this point that son
Mark joined the business. “I was 16 years
old and fresh out of school,” he said. “We
had two engineers on board looking after
service, but we needed to focus more on
sales and that was where I started.”
Mark very much learnt on his feet,
quickly grasping the nuances of business,
and taking charge of the sales department,
ensuring that every prospective customer
receives a bespoke proposal suitable
to their business. In October 2014, he
was promoted to Managing Director,
succeeding his father who has semi-retired,
although he retains his seat on the board
and continues to conduct the odd service
call-out.
He says that the father-son working
relationship has worked really well. “Very
quickly I realised I really enjoy the business
aspect, I’m happiest being strategic and
working with Excel spreadsheets, whereas
my father much prefers being elbow-deep
in toner!” he explained.
In the three years since Mark has been
at the helm, the company has doubled in
size. “We’ve achieved a consistent 20 per
cent growth year on year and we’re on
track to maintain that this coming year,”
he said.
Office move
EBM marked its tenth anniversary
purchasing new premises, still in Witham.
The new 2,500 sq. ft. building was purpose
designed to suit their needs. It houses
office space, showroom, warehouse, service
division and workshop.
Last summer, the company invited local
businesses, partners and clients, hosting
an informal networking event to mark the
official opening of the new HQ.
Nick Smith from Ricoh kicked off the
day with a presentation centred on how
SMEs can save a considerable amount
of money with a print audit. Tim Bland
from Grenke Leasing provided insight on
Witham-based Essex Business Machines (EBM) sets sights on driving growth in IT services
the benefits of leasing over purchasing
office equipment, including avoiding the
‘copier graveyard’ situation, where broken
purchased devices stack up over the
years, taking up space and costing more
and more money as they are continually
replaced. Other speakers included Steve
Pearce from Lexmark, who delivered a
well-received talk on how Google Cloud
integration can benefit organisations
of all sizes and industries through its
collaborative solutions and Brett Lewis
from Konica Minolta described how
big a problem paper waste is for many
businesses. He provided practical advice
for reducing an organisation’s carbon
footprint, while saving money, by cutting
back on the amount of paper used through
deployment of managed print services and
staff education.
MP Priti Patel joined guests, cutting the
ribbon to officially open the new premises.
Ms Patel attended and officiated at the
official opening of EBM’s old premises five
years ago.
Geared for growth
The company supplies, services, provides
maintenance contracts and consumables
for an array of office business machines
within Essex and the surrounding areas
and counties, including London, Kent,
Suffolk, Norfolk, Herts, and Beds.
In January this year, it partnered with
an IT company – IT 4 Offices. “This was
a strategic move for us,” Mark explained.
“Our customers tell us that we do a
great job for them on MPS and they’re
looking for a similar service across their IT
infrastructure. We see managed IT services
as a huge opportunity for growth, and
this new collaboration will allow EBM to
provide comprehensive IT consultancy,
support and solutions to our growing SME
customer base. Our focus is now firmly on
creating opportunities to deliver managed
IT services to support our strategy for
future growth.”
EBM now has a 12-strong team, split
across its sales, customer service, accounts
and after-sales service functions. “We took
on four new members of staff at the start
of this year and we’re actively recruiting
for IT specialists at the moment,” Mark
explained.
The business has retained its focus on
l to r:
Councillor
Patrick Horner
Priti Patel MP
Mick Bailey
Mark Bailey
Mark Bailey
