After selling his previous dealership to Global Imaging Systems in 2012, Gary Johnson is back in the office imaging business with a new dealership and an acquisitive commitment to growth.
Above: WiZiX’s new corporate headquarters in Roseville, CA, will include a state-of-the-art showroom and Sacramento area sales, service, and logistic operations. Below: Frank Cannata (left) gets a tour of the new corporate headquarters in-progress from (left to right) Eric McIntosh, VP, sales; Jill Jurevich, CFO; and Gary Johnson, president.
An intriguing aspect of all these dealer acquisitions has been the quiet return of some dealers who had sold their businesses and are returning now that their non-competes have expired to duplicate their previous successes. We had the good fortune to visit with one of those entrepreneurs this past February and discovered a rather interesting story.
Gary Johnson started down the road to becoming a copier dealer by buying Wolco Business Systems, Inc. in Northern California in 2004 and later renaming it Zoom Imaging Systems. Over the next six years, Zoom experienced exponential growth, expanding into Sacramento, Fairfield, Fresno, Visalia, Bakersfield, and Modesto.
In 2010, Zoom Imaging Systems was selected by Toshiba as its Dealer of the Year. Prior to that, the dealership was acknowledged by Toshiba as Regional Dealer of the Year in every year Johnson owned the business. In December 2012, he sold Zoom Imaging Systems to Global Imaging Systems (GIS).
After fulfilling his non-compete obligations to GIS, Johnson began formulating a plan to reenter the business.
“I was gratified that we achieved the success we enjoyed at Zoom,” he said. “What bothered me was the people who made it possible did not come out as well.”
Five years after he sold Zoom, Johnson launched WiZiX Technology Group in October 2017. Johnson’s energy level and enthusiasm for the business is off the charts and it is just one of the many reasons we believe this company is going places and fast.
In addition to Johnson, we met with two of his senior staff, Jill Jurevich, chief financial officer, and Eric McIntosh, vice president of sales, both of whom worked with Johnson at Zoom. It was obvious that their previous experience with Zoom is being replicated at WiZiX. Both are extremely knowledgeable about the business and their enthusiasm matches Johnson’s.
Johnson is building his new business for growth, both organically and through acquisition. Shortly after forming WiZiX, Johnson acquired two Ricoh Family Group dealers, Stanton Office Machines in Fresno, California, and Scott Technology Group in Sacramento. Both dealerships had an incredible group of employees supporting a solid base of loyal customers, according to Johnson.
But Johnson didn’t stop with those two acquisitions. In August 2018, WiZiX acquired the assets of CBS Imaging in Livermore, California. This acquisition enabled the company to have a branch office in the South Bay area. By this time, Johnson had added Toshiba to the product mix and his former OEM partner was more than delighted to welcome him back.
“It is great to have Gary, a past Toshiba Dealer of the Year Award Winner, back in the fold,” stated Larry White, chief revenue officer, Toshiba America Business Solutions. “The consummate entrepreneur, his burning desire to succeed is infectious. I am confident he will soon be among the top dealers within Toshiba’s dealer channel, if not within the entire industry.”
The building phase of the plan is far from finished as WiZiX recently acquired a new building in Roseville, California. After an extensive renovation, the new 12,000 square foot facility, situated off a major thoroughfare with easy access to the highway, will serve as WiZiX’s corporate offices. Once renovations are complete, the new building will provide increased warehouse and technical service space, as well as a state-of-the-art showroom. The building itself will also function as a rather large billboard for WiZiX.
And Johnson’s plans to expand do not end here. He is currently talking to three different dealers in Northern California about possible acquisitions.
One of the challenges of acquiring dealers is they often are aligned with a manufacturer that the acquirer does not currently represent. That means part of the MIF has machines that the acquirer is not usually capable of servicing or supplying.
At this point Johnson has no plans to add a third vendor to the mix.
“It’s hard enough to keep both Toshiba and Ricoh happy,” said Johnson. “I’m not sure if I could do it with three major vendors.”
That was the only time during our conversation where Johnson acknowledged a challenge he’d prefer to avoid. Today, his mission remains firmly focused on the company and its growth. With a few acquisitions behind him and more in the pipeline, those areas of focus are enough for now.
Our conversation eventually circled back to Johnson’s exit plan, especially since he has done it before in selling to GIS. We wondered if selling the business to his WiZiX employees, many of whom are former Zoom personnel, was on the table.
“I’m not sure if we will just sell to our key employees or go the route of an ESOP [employee stock option plan],” Johnson said. “I would like to think we would get this done in five to seven years.”
That was something we did not expect to hear.
We will be closely watching the evolution of WiZiX, as well as how Johnson navigates this ever-changing industry in the coming years. Once again, we are grateful for the opportunity to meet with and share the stories of our industry’s great entrepreneurs like Johnson.
WiZiX’s new building formerly housed Roseville Motorsports. The 12,000 square foot facility is undergoing a complete renovation.
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