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"New Owners of Team Office FocusOn Business-to-Business ServiceMonthly sales grow to nearly $100,000 since they acquired business one year ago.Though big-box office products stores permeate the area and major retailers carry a wide array of office products, the owners of Team Office Equipment in Austintown don't see those operations as their competition. "Our focus is business-to-business office products as opposed to residential office products," says Nick DePinto, vice president. Last November, DePinto and his partner, Tom Reeveley, acquired Team Office, formerly Blend Office Equipment. Terms were not disclosed. "The opportunity came along," says Reeveley, president of Team Office, who noted that the former owners of the company had pioneered several concepts in the office-supply business. "Team Office was the first local company to come out with the volume superstore that had all office supplies in stock," he says. "They were well ahead of their time with that, had grown to become a local business supply store for office supplies and later added office equipment." In addition, Reeveley says, Team Office was very customer-oriented. "One thing that we found is that every customer we checked with said they love Team Office. Team Office just went the extra mile," he says. "So that was something that fit into our marketing plan that we could take and capitalize on and take to the next level."DePinto says he and Reeveley had worked together previously in "a similar scenario -- the merging of office equipment and general office products in a retail business -- so we saw the viability of that and also felt like this was an opportunity to continue with something that we'd done before." Although Team Office sells office supplies and equipment at retail at its Canfield-Niles Road location, in the business-to-business market, DePinto says, relationships based on service are more important than walk-in business. Where the national chain office supply stores typically have a maximum inventory of about 10,000 items, Team Office's general catalog lists more than 27,000 items available the next day -- with free delivery and no minimum order."I made a delivery to an office this morning in Trumbull County that needed to have their order before 9 a.m. They placed the order yesterday afternoon. Try to call Staples and get that done. There's just no way that they can provide the level of service, customer to customer, that we can," DePinto asserts. "Now, there's no way that I can provide the inventory level for walk-in residential sales -- but that's not my interest," he adds. According to DePinto, the large office supply chains are analyzing how they can compete better in the business-to-business market and are looking to develop smaller locations to more effectively compete in that segment, a $270 billion industry, he relates. "They're going to try to refocus and go after that business because they see the opportunity and that they are not able to capitalize on, given their current structure," DePinto observes. On the equipment side of the business, the office superstores offer consumer-based products -- "high cost per copy, low-volume machines that wouldn't work in a typical office environment," Reeveley says. And his company also offers greater support for companies needing to network their machines, he notes."One of the things that I think is unique about Team Office is that our marketing strategy is to only recommend products and services that will ultimately provide real and ongoing value to our customers," Reeveley says. Since the company is an authorized sales and service dealer for NEC, Toshiba and Copystar, "We are able to bring the best of the products and services in every area," he says. "It gives us a lot of strength to go after market share."With office equipment representing about 60% of sales and office supplies about 40%, Reeveley and DePinto say they are working on expanding both sides of the business, and that monthly sales have grown to the $100,000 range since they acquired Team Office. Reeveley and DePinto see the office furniture and computer supply segments as areas of opportunity, as well as janitorial and cleaning supplies."Customers are looking for someone that they can do more and more business with and have fewer vendors and suppliers," DePinto says. "There are soft costs involved with purchases, and the more business you can do with one company, the more savings you can realize.""