Editor’s Note: Reprographics shops face competition from other shops, FedEx Office locations, big box office stores, and other businesses. But some of the most sophisticated competition comes from regional and national chains of office technology providers, such as Gordon Flesch, DEX Imaging, Marco and UBEV. Over the next four issues of APDSP Today, we’ll provide an overview of each of these competitors, one per issue.
Gordon Flesch is a family-owned hardware and managed print business with 32 locations across six Midwestern states, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and South Dakota. The company, founded in 1956 by typewriter salesman Gordon Flesch, is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin. Members of the Flesch family still lead the business – the top four positions on the org chart have the Flesch last name.
The company continues to grow – it acquired Oshkosh Office Systems in Wisconsin in November 2022 and Stan’s LPS Midwest in Woodstock, Illinois, in August 2022 (click here to read more about that acquisition)
Large-format imaging is not Gordon Flesch’s primary market, and the list of markets they serve – such as education, finance and healthcare -- does not even include AEC. But they are a dealer of Canon/Oce large-format printers, from the smallest ImagePROGRAF to the Arizona. And they have an in-house leasing division. So if you are a large-format dealer in one of their markets, they clearly compete with you. Click here to see the page on their website about their large-format printer offerings
On the small-format side they are definitely a market leader. As of 2022 they had won Canon’s Top Dollar Volume Award eight consecutive years. They belong to the partner programs of numerous tech companies, raning from Microsoft to CISCO to EFI to Ricoh.
The company also has managed print services. Their offering is comprehensive, including device management, analytics, supplies, training, user tracking, security, etc. Here is a passage from the web page about their managed print services that sums up their offer:
“Managed Print is a set of services that addresses issues related to printing to improve workflows. By integrating printers and similar devices with customizable print management software, organizations of all sizes benefit from reduced toner and paper usage to support green initiatives. Plus, remote monitoring and proactive issue resolution reduce downtime and increase efficiencies. With a proper Managed Print solution, printing costs can be reduced by up to 30%.”
The company also has a division called Elevity IT, which manages IT for other companies. Elevity uses a so-called “Four S” approach to IT management: strategy, security, solutions and support.
The company prides itself in community involvement in each of the towns they have locations. Perhaps the most tangible evidence of that is the Gordon Flesch Charitable Foundation, which has given over $2 million to numerous organizations since 2002.
What Do Repro Shop Owners Say?
We asked two reprographic shop owners who compete against Gordon Flesch about the nature of that competition. Their responses were somewhat sensitive and proprietary, so we’ve put them in the APDSP Member Portal. To read the responses, please click here to log in, then click on the “Reports and Recorded Webinars” tab on the left; the Gordon Flesch item is the top item.