The acquisition of WIT Corp. further expands the Owing Mills’ dealership’s footprint.
(Pictured above: Centric Business Systems’ President Rick Bastinelli.)
When we first received the press release about Centric’s acquisition of Webster Integrated Technologies (WIT Corp.) a week ago, we congratulated Rick Bastinelli, the owner of Centric Business Systems, and thanked him for making us look like an excellent prognosticator.
Our foresight goes back to September 2011 when we were invited to the opening of Centric’s new corporate headquarters in Owings Mills, MD. At that time, I asked Bastinelli what had enabled him to grow the business into a $35 million dealership during a difficult economic environment. He clearly enunciated his strategy of becoming a major regional player in our industry. At that point he had opened a branch to the west of his corporate headquarters and acquired a small dealer to the east. The acquisition of Corrigan Manning, a $5 million dealership based in Malvern, PA, a suburb of Philadelphia, affirmed that strategy for us and we predicted unequivocally that a Richmond, VA acquisition was very much in the plan.
When Centric added Corrigan Manning, they were Sharp and Lexmark dealers. Because Centric is one of Sharp’s leading dealers, the synergism was obvious. WIT Corp is a Ricoh dealer, which provides further synergy as Centric is also a very important dealer for Ricoh.
With this latest acquisition Centric now services more than 40,000 devices from its seven locations in four states (Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia) and the District of Columbia and has enhanced its to become far more aggressive and succeed in the enterprise space. Annual revenues are now well over $55 million.
Following is the press release about the acquisition:
Centric Business Systems, a leading document technology provider in the mid-Atlantic region, announced that it has acquired Webster Integrated Technologies (WIT Corp), located in Richmond, Virginia.
WIT Corp is a successful and reputable office equipment dealer servicing the greater Richmond marketplace for more than 27 years. They carry a full-line of Ricoh/Lanier document systems as well as an array of document management solutions and services. WIT’s employees have joined the Centric team and will continue to service their existing clients.
“The acquisition of WIT Corp is strategic and consistent with our growth strategy, said Rick Bastinelli, president of Centric Business Systems. “They are the perfect compliment to Centric’s existing product line, culture and service model, while also providing the opportunity for us to expand our regional footprint farther into the state of Virginia.”
Centric currently serves the states of Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, the District of Columbia, and parts of Virginia and West Virginia. With the addition of 22 counties surrounding the greater Richmond area, Centric has expanded its service area to include the Virginia Piedmont region.
“We are excited to be a part of the Centric team,” said Gayle Webster, president of Webster Integrated Technologies. “By combining the resources, experience and industry knowledge of our teams, we can offer enhanced resources to better serve our clients as a single-source office equipment, software and document solutions provider.”
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