01732 759725
1st Office is Olivetti’s Elite Dealer
in the South-West and one of the
region’s largest independent printing
services providers. Its head office is
in Bath and it has regional offices
in Plymouth, Exeter, Barnstaple and
Bristol, each of which is staffed with
a team of local sales, service and
after sales support personnel.
Sales and Marketing Director Andrew
Jones said that the acquisition of Digital
Systems is a significant development in
the plans 1st Office has in place to expand
its business and will play a key part in its
strategy to extend its reach along the M4
corridor into South Wales.
According to Jones, when the
opportunity to acquire Digital Systems
presented itself, it was an easy decision to
make. “Digital Systems was a perfect fit
for us. The company works with the same
business partners and shares the same
commitment to delivering exceptional
service that we do at 1st Office.”
Accelerate expansion
“In addition, having a physical office in
Caerphilly staffed by an experienced and
dedicated team, as well as a significant
installed customer base, will enable us
to accelerate our expansion plans and
increase our presence within South Wales,”
he said.
1st Office, which has been trading for
three decades, employs 65 people and
enjoys an annual turnover of £7m. It has
enjoyed continued growth year-on-year,
achieved both organically and through
acquisition. It acquired Bath-based Clark
Business Products in 2005 and Saltash-
based Crown Copiers in 2008.
“We have also purchased a number
of smaller dealerships’ machine bases
tactically over the years to increase our
MIF,” Jones explained.
As to the future, Jones confirmed that
they are looking at other acquisitions. He
said: “We will make further acquisitions
where there is a fit with our business and
where we can see a tangible benefit to our
expansion plans. The natural progression
would be to move east along the M4
corridor towards Reading.”
On the hardware side, 1st Office
has partnered with Olivetti, Ricoh and
Lexmark, a multi-brand strategy that
1st Office completes
major acquisition
1st Office Equipment Ltd has completed the acquisition of
Caerphilly-based Digital Systems UK (SouthWales &West) Ltd, an
independent supplier of Olivetti photocopier and print equipment.
Andrew Jones,
Sales and Marketing
Director,
1st Office
enables them to offer independent advice
on the best equipment to meet individual
customers’ business needs. “We enjoy
strong relationships with our partners and
as all of our technicians are manufacturer-
trained, our customers also benefit from a
first-class maintenance service,” said Jones.
Flexible outsourcing
The company has evolved its offering and
now provides customers with flexible
outsourcing solutions to meet their
changing business needs. Services include
proactive management of the entire printer
estate through its MPS offering as well
as outsourced IT services. In essence, 1st
Office can remotely manage and provide
all of the support necessary to ensure a
client’s IT infrastructure, from its servers
through to its printers, are managed,
serviced and supported for maximum
uptime and business efficiency.
“This is the fastest growing area of our
business,” said Jones. “Currently we deliver
a fully managed service to around 20%
of our client base and we expect that to
increase to 50% by the end of this year.
“Our plan is to introduce Digital
Systems’ customers to our improved MPS
and new IT Services and this is where we
see the potential for growth,” he added.
The acquisition ranks 1st Office as
the largest Olivetti dealer in the UK
providing office copier and print equipment
technologies, with a wide range of
document and workflow software, for both
office and print production environments.
Dennis Woods, Managing Director of
Olivetti UK Ltd, said: “We have always
been very impressed with the strong
business performance of both companies
and now that they have merged both
businesses, they are a strong force to be
reckoned with. I have no doubts that they
will continue to deliver an exceptional
service performance to their customers.”
acquisition
Print.IT Reseller
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