Growing against the grain

GREEN, MD of Commerce Business

John Green has been on quite the journey. After starting in August 2002 as a sole trader, John quickly realised the better option would be to become a limited company so on the 20th November 2002 Commerce Business Systems Ltd was formed.

The last 10 years haven’t always been smooth sailing, but the transformation John has managed to achieve in the business during this time is impressive. “We’ve had quite an up and down journey, as you do in business. From not having any customers on day one, to progressively growing with a couple of small acquisitions in the late 2000s, to now having to move to new premises - and taking on next door’s unit as well due to our rapid growth and expansion.”

At its core, CBS has always been in the photocopier business, supplying copiers, scanners and printers - but over the last five years it has evolved to include IT support services too. This new offering means that a second sales team has been introduced; one sales team continues to sell the more traditional hardware while the other sells software, cyber-security, document management and more.

Growth In Challenging Times

Whilst COVID was a time of struggle for many businesses, for CBS it was a time of growth. John credits this to the mindset he and his team cultivated during that time, “We have really excelled and grown after COVID, and I think that’s because we took the time in 2020 to refocus our minds on what we were doing, and what we should be doing, going forward.

“In 2020 we actually turned over the same amount as the previous year, which I thought was a tremendous achievement in such a torrid time. In 2021 we improved our business by 20% and then, last year, we grew by another 15%. This is all due to the hard work we’ve put in over the last three years.”

However, COVID hasn’t been the only challenge that’s presented itself over the last couple of years - far from it; we’ve had the cost-ofliving crisis, paper shortages and supply chain issues, to name just a few. Just as was the case during the pandemic, these challenges didn’t put the brakes on John’s drive and determination, they only accelerated them. “If the chips are down, I seem to get more determined to become more successful.”

This push for growth isn’t slowing down any time soon, as John has big plans for the year ahead. “I’m looking for more growth and I’ll be looking at the acquisition trail. We’ve got nothing set in stone at the moment, but if anybody out there is considering selling their business, we’re very interested in having a conversation with them about how we could help.

“We’ve increased our sales team since the start of the year by another four people, and between internal sales, account management and field sales, we are very determined to grow the customer base for new business.”

A Focus On Diversification

Possible acquisitions to grow the business aren’t the only thing on John’s agenda; he has already started to diversify into different sectors to ensure his customer base covers a diverse range of industries. “I think it’s great having a mix. Although we’re massively into the SME market, we don’t just do corporate; we’re also quite big in education in the local area, and we service a lot of primary schools in Bradford.

“It’s so important not to just focus on one particular industry - again, that seemed to work during the COVID period where we had sectors like food manufacturing doing more business with us than they did pre-COVID, but then we had the hotel and leisure industry shut down and not spending with us at all. If we’d been solely servicing the leisure industry we’d have been in trouble but, as we service so many sectors, if one industry is having a lull it doesn’t impact us as much, as another one might be experiencing a high.”

John emphasises just how important continued evolution and diversification is, even in tougher economic times when moving into new areas may feel like a risk. “Being too slow to diversify could see the demise of a company. I remember when colour hit the MFP marketplace. Some people were scared of selling it and so took a while to add it to their product mix. Really, they should have thought of the benefits of being one of the first people to sell a new product and the innovation that shows your customers.

“The same sort of thing is happening now. You see certain dealerships that are only doing what they’ve already done for the last 15-20 years, but they won’t be in this business for much longer because they’ll get left behind. You’ve got to diversify and take on new ideas.

“I speak to every manufacturer about what ideas they’ve got, going forward, or new products and services that we can bolt onto what we’re already doing. We’ll never change what we’re doing in the sense of the base of our business, but there are other areas which we can really grow with.”

Recognition Of Achievement

It’s easy get bogged down in the day-to-day operations of running a business and not take the time to reflect on your achievements and the journey you have been on - but something like winning an award makes you do just that. After winning an industry award for Reseller of the Year, John had a moment to truly take it all in and celebrate his and CBS’ achievements. “I was over the moon - especially as it’s the first time I’ve even applied for anything like that. We went to London for the awards night - which was a bit of a trip for us Yorkshire boys - but it was great!”

When asked why he thinks CBS won the award, John put it down to their push to diversify and resilience in the face of adversity, which resulted in business growth. “The increase in business has been amazing. We didn’t take what happened three years ago as a negative, we turned it into a positive and pushed forward.

“We’ve increased in head counts, sales, engineering, admin support and, most importantly, we’ve increased our turnover and profit. I think the judges recognised that we’re not a company that’s just going to stand still, and they could see from the percentage increases we’ve made that we were probably deserving winners.

“I can say that now, now I’ve got the trophy in my office!”