Perry ProTECH’s Barry Clark and Patrick Summers discuss what makes this employee-owned dealership tick.
On a cold wintry day, CJ and I flew into Indianapolis, rented a car, and drove to Perry ProTECH’s Fort Wayne, Indiana, branch to meet with CEO Barry Clark and other members of the company’s executive team.
Perry ProTECH is considered one of the leading dealers in our industry. Although its geographical reach encompasses northern and western Ohio, northeastern Indiana, and southern Michigan, we still view it as a dealership with a national reputation. In addition to Fort Wayne and its Lima, Ohio, headquarters, Perry ProTECH has offices in Findlay, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, and Marion in Ohio, as well as a separate distribution center in Lima that combines three different teams, parts and inventory, service and repair, and warehouse.
Frank Cannata (third from left) with left to right Barry Clark, Dan Catalenas, VP of service, and Patrick Summers, three members of the executive team tasked with driving Perry ProTECH’s ongoing growth.
Perry ProTECH is employee-owned and is a member of the ESOP (Employee Share Ownership Plan) Association and Community. Because of this, the firm’s more than 275 employees are actively involved in work-level decisions, are dedicated, and have pride in their ownership of the company.
According to Perry ProTECH’s website, its mission is to help clients achieve a competitive advantage by maximizing the integration of technology with their practical business needs. It is successful in employing solutions for key verticals such as financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, education, telecommunications, utilities, and municipalities. Perry ProTECH provides complete managed IT solutions, managed print services, and IT staff augmentations regularly or as needed. Security is an added service capability, encompassing surveillance monitoring, alarm systems, access control, video verification, fire alarm services, and mobile video.
The dealership’s primary A3 MFP suppliers are Konica Minolta Business Solutions and Ricoh Americas Corp., with Lexmark serving as its A4 MFP and printer provider.
Acquisitions and Production Print
While attending Ricoh’s ConvergX 2019 meeting last fall, we were surprised to see Perry ProTECH recognized as one of Ricoh’s top dealers. This intrigued us, and we asked Clark how the dealership acquired the Ricoh line. He detailed that Office Concepts, Inc., a Ricoh dealer, was a strong competitor of Perry’s Fort Wayne branch, and he had been trying to acquire them for some time. When that time finally came in 2019, the deal ultimately resulted in two primary benefits: the elimination of a competitor in the fight for market share, and the acquisition of a strong, viable production print line. Perry ProTECH’s current revenue proves the acquisition has notably bolstered the business.
The Office Concepts deal wasn’t Perry ProTECH’s first foray in the mergers and acquisitions arena. In 2007, Perry Corporation purchased SMS proTECH, a provider of information technology services to keep pace with technology changes. When SMS proTECH and Perry Corporation merged, the unified firm was rebranded as Perry ProTECH in December 2012.
The combined company consolidated its critical resources, enabling the newly formed Perry ProTECH to expand its offerings to include new document solutions, enhanced service offerings, new formats in printing solutions, security technologies, managed IT services, and a private cloud offering.
CJ Cannata (center) with Patrick Summers (left) and Barry Clark (right).
From our standpoint, Perry ProTECH’s current level of success in MPS and MNS, as well as production print, is a direct result of these strategic acquisitions. Fully 25% of the company’s growth has come from MPS and 20% from MNS.
Production print has doubled in revenue over the last two years, propelled by the dealership’s two product lines, Konica Minolta and Ricoh. The Cannata Report estimates those three areas represent approximately 35% of Perry ProTECH’s total revenue, with the remaining 65% coming from imaging. This potent business mix has been made possible as Perry ProTECH has maximized the assets from its SMS and Office Concepts acquisitions.
The combination of a shrewd acquisition strategy, strong technology expertise, and committed employees can make the path to success almost seem easy. However, in a field of constant competition, even companies like Perry ProTECH are forced to thrive at the edge of innovation to remain successful.
In a 2014 interview in The Cannata Report, Clark recalled how Rex Perry (founder and owner of Perry Copiers) tracked him down in 1994 to be his successor. Perry started by appointing Clark as the company’s corporate service manager because Perry wanted him to learn about the most profitable side of the business first. Clark’s approach to the business was simple: Excel at what you do, surround yourself with good people, and prioritize the customer first. That mentality paved Clark’s path to his current role as CEO.
Clark joined the company around the same time Perry gave the company’s employees the option for him to either sell the business or convert it into an ESOP. Employees voted unanimously to become an ESOP.
“As an ESOP we must look at the business a little differently,” said Clark. “Instead of chasing a revenue number, let’s chase a stock value.”
Summers Time
Clark has assembled a knowledgeable team of executives who have a solid handle on how to focus on growth in a competitive environment. In 2017, he hired Patrick Summers as president. During our meeting, we were impressed with Summers’ insights about the company’s initiatives to remain profitable and ahead of the technology curve.
Summers admitted he did not win any new friends in 2019 when he advised the sales team that one-third of the imaging business had to come from net new, and that 25% of the managed services contracts had to be net new. In his view, the objective of this initiative was to encourage salespeople to get off the hardware train. To affirm this commitment, the company’s latest comp plan is designed to achieve this business mix.
Summer’s comments on production were equally telling: “We’re blessed that we represent two of the best manufacturers (Konica Minolta and Ricoh) in the world.”
Summers recognizes that selling production requires a deep commitment. The company has created a support structure to enable this effort and built a production team to seek out opportunities. At the same time, the focus is on accountability.
“We turned up the heat starting in January 2018,” said Summers. “We have been 200% of plan for the past two years.”
What impressed us most about the time we spent with Clark and Summers was that there was always a caveat that they had to do more with what they had and expand in every way possible.
Even though the dealership is doing well in production print, the leadership team now has its sights expanding into industrial print. A4 represents another opportunity.
One of the challenges facing dealers today is the increase in A4 MFP placements compared to A3 MFPs. Clark noted the A4 MFP business is profitable, but not as much as A3.
“We have to sell wider and deeper, that is a key priority for Perry ProTECH in 2020,” said Clark about the company’s resolution for growing the A4 business.
As an industry leader, we’re excited to continue watching Clark, Summers, and the Perry ProTECH team grow and succeed in the years to come.
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