PRINTITRESELLER.UK 29 took on its first European devices with the acquisition of iDoc in September 2022 and by adding Office Odyssey to the XBM family of businesses has boosted this number by a further 500. “Our expansion plans extend beyond the UK,” Taylor said, adding: “In addition to our existing deployments in Europe, we have recently done three cross-border contracts, supplying machines into America as well.” Further acquisitions are firmly on the cards for XBM. “I spend a lot of time building relationships with other dealers – whether that’s just helping them out, doing service calls, or just simply making friends. For the past couple of years, I’ve been talking to people that are early into their journey, as well as some that are at the back end of the journey, and that’s how we build a pipeline for new acquisitions.” Taylor points out that while many conversations happen within the Epson channel network, ideally, every dealer he’d want to buy would be non-branded Epson. “That gives us the opportunity to churn them. I can go to Epson and negotiate on price because I’m about to get uncharted MIF for them. “We have more or less got the next six acquisitions lined up already. Some are small, some are bigger,” he concluded. www.xbmltd.com XBM and our management team are excited to partner with Paul and his team,” he added. Sales differentiator XBM is Epson’s largest UK reseller and one of only two Epson Diamond Partners in the UK, Office Odyssey is the OEM’s third biggest dealer, so this move notably effectively creates an Epson super dealer within the UK channel. XBM leads every single opportunity with Epson’s heat-free proposition. Taylor said: “We basically work in an industry that supplies equipment that puts marks on a piece of paper. With Epson we have a different message and can tell a different story around how people can print. We actively promote inkjet; we don’t apologise for it, which is what a lot of our competitors do. In fact, in most cases, we don’t talk technology until after the customer has had a demo of the devices. “The reason we do that is because of the sustainability message. We can talk to customers about their CSR messaging and their sustainability goals and put together a comprehensive report showing them how we can reduce their carbon footprint - before we’ve even mentioned photocopiers,” he added. Expansion plans XBM now has around just over 7,000 machines in the field. The company Following XBM’s rebranding in 2021, it announced ambitious expansion plans. In fact, according to Richard Taylor, the goal is to take the business to £30 million. The Office Odyssey acquisition is the fifth XBM has completed in the last two years – previous purchases include iDoc Services, Apex Workflows, MPS Scotland and Alba Technology. “The only way we can get to £30 million is by acquisition,” Taylor explains. “Office Odyssey is the biggest acquisition we’ve done to date; it adds 2,300 machines including an additional 500 European devices to our MIF.” Social enterprise Office Odyssey’s mission is to increase employment for people diagnosed with autism or other barriers to work and it also provides free hardware and support to small charities, other social enterprises, and special needs schools. The company will continue to trade under its own name and all the staff will remain with the business. Taylor continued: “The reason for that is because the company operates as a social enterprise and some of the staff that work there have that barrier to work. “For XBM, having a social enterprise in the group is a benefit. I believe Office Odyssey is the only social enterprise in England. The NHS and government in particular have targets to spend money with social enterprises, and for many large corporates, it’s a powerful USP, so that combined with the strong sustainability piece that Epson’s offering delivers, gives us a massive sales advantage,” Taylor said. Office Odyssey’s Paul Bellew will continue to push the business forward as Sales Director. “With his clear and unique vision, Paul has created an exceptional social enterprise. I am excited to be able to work with him and continue developing the vision and providing support to accelerate the business’s development further. As Epson resellers and supporters of charities and community organisations, XBM has acquired Office Odyssey, a social enterprise that helps people diagnosed with autism or with other barriers to work. Michelle Ryder spoke to XBM Managing Director Richard Taylor about the latest acquisition XBM completes its fifth acquisition INTERVIEW Richard Taylor
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