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DEALER PROFILE
48
Managing Director Wayne Elphick,
an ex-Olivetti technical engineer,
set up the dealership back in 1980.
Then, in 2008 his youngest son
Sam joined the firm’s service
department to gain work experience
during a gap year.
Sam quickly developed a passion for
all things print-related and, cancelling his
plans to go to university, chose to remain
with the family firm and learn the business
from the ground up. Seven years on, he’s a
print industry convert. Having worked his
way through the ranks, he currently heads
up the firm’s sales operation and was
made a director earlier this year.
Lex predominately serves customers
within a 30-mile radius of its head office
in Radcliffe, including several that have
offices throughout the UK.
“We have a number of clients whose
head offices are in the North West but
who also have operations nationwide.
As a UTAX partner, we are able to utilise
their national service infrastructure, which
means we can provide the same levels
of technical support across all locations,
without having to send our engineers
across the country. That is a real plus for
us,” explained Sam.
The company currently has a headcount
of 12, which includes four service
engineers.
The greatest challenge
Sam says the greatest challenge facing Lex
Business Equipment today is competing on
price with OEMs.
“Even today, when the focus is
predominantly on solutions that improve
business efficiency, there are instances
where price is still king. When up against
some OEMs, we have to make sure we’re
priced as competitively as possible to win
that business,” he explained.
He added: “Our background is in
service and that’s really our USP. It’s this
expertise and heritage that gives us a
competitive edge, and we’ve been really
successful winning tenders on the back of
this value proposition.”
Growth and profitability
Lex Business Equipment has enjoyed
sustained growth, closing the last fiscal
year with a £210k increase in turnover and
a 23% rise in pre-tax profits.
“We have grown quite significantly, in
2015 marks the 35th anniversary of Manchester-based Lex Business Equipment.
The company, which cites UTAX and Develop as its major print partners, is a
true family affair.
A family affair
the last two years in particular, and have a
business plan in place to support our future
growth plans,” said Sam. “We are now
two-thirds of the way through the current
financial year and are on course to achieve
a year-end turnover figure of £1.65m.”
Sam expects future growth to come
from the upselling of solutions to its
existing customer base and from new
business generated by promoting the
benefits of working with a local supplier.
As part of its expansion plans, the
company has just launched a new
e-commerce website, which will also be
used to promote its office supplies and
furniture divisions.
“This move will further increase our
online presence and drive transactional
sales across printers, small MFPs and IT
hardware,” Sam explained.
In addition, Lex Business Equipment
is running a six-month radio advertising
campaign, from May to November, to
drive device sales and to promote its MPS
offering. “The campaign will focus on
exploiting the tiered billing feature that the
UTAX range of MFPs has, and we are quite
confident this will be a success,” said Sam.
He adds that the campaign has already
led to a huge influx of website traffic, with
more than 90% of visitors new to Lex
Business Equipment.
On-going investment
With growth firmly on the agenda for the
next five years, Lex Business Equipment is
ready to increase headcount and invest in
staff training to ensure it continues to offer
the best service to its customers.
“We recognise that our people are our
biggest asset and we continually look at
how we can further develop them,” said
Sam. “For example, we recently placed two
of our employees on management courses
to upskill. We have an ultra-low staff
turnover and we’re very proud of that; our
service manager will this year celebrate his
25th year working at our company!”
As part of the firm’s 35th anniversary
celebrations, later in the year Lex Business
Equipment is treating staff and their
partners to an overnight stay at a DeVere
resort. The company is also planning to
mark the milestone with an event for
customers and suppliers.
The biggest
challenge
Lex Business
Equipment
faces today
is competing
on price with
OEMs.
