Office Friends

w: officefriends.com “The print shop has been a wellestablished business for more than 38 years.“

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GRIMSBY office supplies company is enjoying a major period of expansion – allowing it to provide an even better service to its growing numbers of customers.

Office Friends, based in King Edward Street, Grimsby, has opened up an exciting new era in its business life and

Office Friends , King Edward Street, Grimsby.

External sales Pete Andrews and Jon Bocock, with directors Helen Horder and Rob Mearns.

Picture: Abby Ruston

is looking forward to attracting plenty of interest from new and existing customers.

As well as its Grimsby branch, Office Friends is also located on Foxhills

Our impressive print department caters for your business requirements

Industrial Estate Scunthorpe.

The company now has its own in-house printing department, meaning that it can now provide a complete service for customers old and new.

Internally, a whole host of commercial printing requirements can be provided for customers, including non-carbonated pads, sheets for invoices and receipts and delivery notes with part for the customer and part for the company.

Leaflets, booklets, “with compliments” slips, letterheads business cards and single-sided or double-sided flyers can also be provided.

The print shop can provide both litho and digital print.

Jonathan Laud, the print shop’s sales account manager, said: “The print

shop has been a well-established business for more than 38 years.

“What makes us unique in our print shop is that we have got 100 years of print knowledge among our staff.

“There is a total staff of six at the print shop. We have all worked our way through the ranks.”

He said there was an impressive amount of print machinery there, including colour litho and highresolution printers and copiers, booklet makers, a collator, a large guillotine, a numberer, perforator and scorer, a folder machine and a drill hole puncher.

“It’s good to provide companies with everything from paper clips to your computer, he said.

“It’s good to work in a family-run business.”

13 GTE-E01-S4-SEPTEMBER 16, 2014

sales hotline: 01472 341493 / 01724 845682

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Quality control

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Fast, efficient delivery

managed print solutions

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S well as the printing services and its existing services, the company now offers managed print solutions as well.

The new division of the company, Office Friends Systems, provides managed print solutions, allowing customers to buy or rent equipment, such as a printer or photocopier, with a maintenance contract that looks after all the running costs.

Julian Eaglen, sales director for Office Friends Systems, said that the maintenance contract ensured that equipment was monitored for customers so that, for example, toners could be replaced when they started running out.

“We can provide the equipment and run it cheaper than they can do it themselves,” he said.

“We take away all that pain and let them get on with doing their job.

“There are quantifiable savings to be made.”

Office Friends, King Edward Street, Grimsby.

The copier team, Jonathan Laud, apprentice Ed, Danny Brewer and Julian Eaglen.

Picture: Abby Ruston

The same service is offered for digital printing, photocopying and scanner systems, ranging from basic machines to ones that run in large production rooms.

IT hardware and software can be provided for everyone, including schools and commercial organisations.

“We can provide equipment, networking and service back-up – anything a company needs in terms of IT,” said Julian.

Document management systems can be set up so invoices and purchasing documents can be electronically filed by automating the whole process and so avoiding a mass of paperwork.

“We can save 90 per cent of manual handling for invoices and purchase

documents,” said Julian.

Telecom systems, including Toshiba, can be supplied, ranging from a single handset to a multi-user system with as many headsets as needed. Voicemail can also be provided.

Service contracts can be set up for anything the company supplies, including photocopiers, printers telecoms and software IT. Julian said he was delighted that the new arm of the company was being supported by UTAX, an English company that has the well-known Japanese giant Kyocera Corporation as its parent company.

“We were very pleased and proud to be accepted as a dealer by UTAX and

we plan to become one of the largest dealers in the UK,” he said.

“They are a big brand. They are very much like us. They want to deal with people who will look after the products.

“They know they can trust us. You live and die in this business by customer support.”

Shaun Wilkinson, of UTAX, said: “I am delighted to offer my congratulations to Julian Eaglen on his new business venture, Office Friends Systems Ltd. “I have known and worked with Julian for the last eight years.

“Julian worked in a previous dealership where the UTAX range was sold with great success, therefore it is a real pleasure that Julian has chosen to work with UTAX in his new venture.

“Both of our companies share the same values of putting the customer first, delivering great value and constantly delivering service above and beyond the expected norm.

“It is no accident that both Julian and UTAX continue to be successful in what is still a challenging economic environment.

“Our respective business models continue to evolve so that we can anticipate and meet the needs of our

sales hotline: 01472 341493 / 01724 845682

ranges online “Companies have no need to go anywhere else. We can get them whatever they need for the whole office.

We offer the full solution, which is what we have always wanted to do.“

Office Friends, King Edward Street, Grimsby

growing customer base.

“Our customer first work ethic will help to ensure the successful future of Julian and Office Systems.”

Julian and his colleague, Danny Brewer, who is the service director, joined the well-established Office Friends team in April and are pleased that they are now bringing yet another new perspective to the company.

They already had close links with Office Friends managing directors Rob Mearns and Helen Horder through their work elsewhere but the link-up now means that operations have been further strengthened.

“We decided to join up with Office Friends and we have set up Office Friends Systems with them,” said Julian.

Much of the work is carried out from the bases in Grimsby and at Mercia Way, on the Foxhills industrial estate at Scunthorpe, but the company covers the whole of Lincolnshire and further afield

across the whole country.

About 25 people are employed at the Grimsby and Scunthorpe branches.

“The reason why I wanted to join up with Office Friends is that they were a similar company to us,” said Julian.

“They are a family-oriented, customerfocused company and I like their work ethos.

“We are very pleased with how it is going. I started working for a small family company which has grown over the years.

“I have always worked on a local level. We believe greatly in building relationships.

“I have worked in sales for a long, long time and I don’t believe that sales is always about profits. It’s built on relationships.”

The company aimed to provide the right equipment to customers at the right price, said Julian.

“It’s about fine-tuning and matching equipment to companies’ needs,” he added.

Office Friends could help make a big difference to the costs of companies by looking with them at what the buyers working for them might think were already cheap running costs, said Julian.

“It’s only when you go in and identify what they are paying that you can make a big difference to their bottom-line,” he said.

“We let them get on with what they know best and we do the rest for them.”

He added that, when he joined Office Friends, a realistic business plan was set out for the first year of Office Friends Systems – but this was exceeded in only the first four months.

“Because we are customer-focused, you do live and die in this business by the quality of your service,” said Julian.

“We do what it says on the tin. We have got national customers already and we have got customers in London.

“From a business point of view, due to the financial constraints of today, we know and understand that it’s extremely hard to set up a new business.”

Danny said: “I am very pleased to be involved. We want to provide the sort of family atmosphere that our customers want.

“It’s going extremely well. We are actively growing the service side of the business.

“We have done installations in

w: officefriends.com Manchester, Crewe, Doncaster and York.

“We have recently taken on an apprentice and we are looking to expand that side of the business.”

Rob Mearns said that, as well as the new printing and managed print solutions services, Office Friends could also

provide everything that a customer could possibly want for an office, including printing machines, furniture and stationery.

As part of the service Office Friends offer free planning and design for office refits, with free consultations to see what a customer wanted in their office.

The service includes 3D images to give an idea of how things would look and a presentation of the proposals being suggested.

“We will go in and talk to them about what they want,” said Rob.

Office Friends, King Edward Street, Grimsby

“We do some plans for them and we do 3D images so they can see what the office is going to look like with different corporate images.”

Helen said: “Companies have no need to go anywhere else. We can get them whatever they need for the whole office.

“We offer the full solution, which is what we have always wanted to do.”

Rob said that the company provided a full account management service for large companies.

“We want companies to know that we can now compete with the nationals,” he said.

Helen added: “Our aim is to be able to provide a competitive service locally.

“Our vision is to continue to grow our already good, solid, local company.

“We will continue to offer the same service as long as we can, with the support of the local community.”

The company is in the process of setting up a new telesales team.

“We are actively looking for experienced staff,” said Helen.

Rob said: “Over the last two or three years, we have taken on seven apprentices throughout the business, which is proving very successful.”

Helen said: “We see them as our future.”

SEPTEMBER 16, 2014 GTE-E01-S4 16

w: officefriends.com “we can provide nationwide delivery services”

Office Friends Retail team Leigh Mardling and Trish Booth.

Picture: Abby Ruston

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HE shop in King Edward Street is a key part of the Grimsby business.

Among the staff are shop manager Trish Booth and supervisor Leigh Mardling.

The shop has flourished since the closure of the nearby Staples shop and Rob said the business was quick to see the opportunity for increased sales in the light of the closure.

“We jumped in quickly and it’s going very well,” said Trish.

Business cards can be printed and the shop also offers a same-day laminating and binding service.

Leigh added: “We do it while they wait, which makes it popular.”

Office furniture, chairs, desks, filing cabinets, card, paper, printers, laminators, printer cartridges and an exclusive range of wooden educational toys.

Leigh said that university students find the range of products provided particularly useful.

Many popular, everyday brands of pen are available, including Bic and Pentel, and the shop is an agent for Sheaffer pens, including the Ferrari range.

Sales director Adam Scott runs the sales team and is in overall charge of corporate accounts for Office Friends.

He said that the key to this side of the business was its very friendly approach to customers and good pricing.

“We like to think of ourselves as a bit of

a one-stop shop,” he said.

The aim is to mirror what corporate companies could provide but to offer competitive rates and a customerfocussed service.

Regular reviews are provided to customers with the aim of identifying optimum savings that could be made for them, based on their usage of materials.

“We always keep our eye on the latest products to come on to the market,” said Adam.

“We may be able to find one of our own-brand alternatives which may offer savings.”

Discounts are also provided from manufacturers’ recommended retail prices.

“We have standard discounts that are as high as any in the area,” said Adam.

He said that sometimes it could cause a company serious problems if a particular item was out of stock but Office Friends always aim to find a speedy replacement.

“Our ethos is that we act as an additional procurement arm for our customers,” said Adam.

“We have some very happy customers.

We love the fact that our ethos is to look after them.

“People do like dealing with local businesses. We obviously manage to retain our closeness and relationships whilst matching what

a corporate supplier would do.

“We can give them a family-run local business. We don’t have a faceless call centre.

“We have very good staff. Some of them have been with us for 20 years. We have great expertise.

“We can save people money as a total spend by conducting regular reviews.

“We are very often saving people significant sums throughout the year by managing their account properly.

“That’s the best way you can save customers money. It’s very much based on their total spend.”

A full online ordering service for stock can be provided, with varying authorisation levels for customer companies, ranging from more junior staff logging in to place orders to senior management approvals.

“We can work with any system that they use internally to make their life as simple as possible,” said Adam.

“We have our own drivers in the Lincolnshire area offering a next-day delivery service. ”Currently supplying several clients with Multiple locations we also provide nationwide delivery services.”

There are many people without whom we wouldn’t be where we are today. One person who has been key to our success is Leonard Booth from Pelham Chartered Accountants who guided us through with his expert help and advice.

CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS 01472 245522 www.pelhambusiness.com Leonard Booth, partner at Pelham Accountants in Grimsby, paid tribute to the expansion of Office Friends.

He said: “I’ve been involved from the word go, 11 years ago this November.

“I’ve been an accountant for over 40 years so they came to me when they were trying to get into business and we managed to strike a deal and

they’ve gone from there.

“They knew the sale and warehouse side of it but they needed to know how to run a business in those early stages.

Eventually opportunities to expand came up and since then the growth has been rapid.

“They approached me two years ago with the latest expansion in mind and now there’s a real synergy there.

“The business has gone from strength to strength. They have streamlined their site and managed to sustain that success. They needed to be nurtured but now they have the confidence.

“It’s been a super transformation and there’s no reason why it shouldn’t continue.”

Tel: 01472 341493 01724 845682

VOW

FAST OVERNIGHT DISTRIBUTION

We offer a next day delivery for 99% of our day to day office supplies. Most core items are stocked in our warehouse in King Edward Street, Grimsby, and all other items are ordered from our wholesalers, the largest of which is VOW, who operate a 24 hour picking system, enabling them to deliver our goods to us during the early hours of the morning ready for us to deliver to our customers.