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Dex Imaging Acquiring U.S. Imaging Solutions & Tonertype LLC
By Marcia Heroux Pounds
Fifteen years ago, Sean Guerin and Britt Sikes were young Fort Lauderdale entrepreneurs with a know-it-all attitude.
"We were young and thought we knew more than we did — the old guys didn’t know what they were doing. Turns out a lot of them did," Guerin said.
On Monday, Tampa-based Dex Imaging announced it was acquiring U.S. Imaging Solutions as well as a Tampa-based Tonertype LLC. U.S. Imaging Solutions is a sales and service provider for Canon, Hewlett Packard, Konica, Minolta, Lexmark and Muratec. Tonertype is a reseller of HP and Lexmark brands.
"This acquisition is an important step to broadening [our] vision," said Dan Doyle Jr., Dex Imaging chief executive.
Combined, the three companies – which manage the gamut of office document flow, sales and service – will create a company with $148 million in annual revenues. The purchase price for the two companies was not disclosed.
The acquisitions are "about building the best company in the industry," said Guerin. "If you can’t beat ’em, join them."
Guerin and Sikes, who won the Sun Sentinel Co.’s Excalibur award for small business leader in 2005, began the business in their garage. Guerin was 28 and left a promising career in sales and market for Boston Market to start his own business.
By 2005, the company was a homegrown success story with 50 employees and sales of $13 million in 2004. Sales climbed higher, but then the recession hit.
"We took our lumps. That’s where we earned our MBA," Guerin said. "A large number of clients went out of business; others saw their business drop dramatically.
Guerin said he and Sikes took the attitude with clients that "we’ll work with you." It paid off. "We didn’t get back all the way to our height, but pretty darn close," he said.
U.S. Imaging has annual sales of about $12 million now. It saw a 30 percent increase in revenues in 2012.
Local clients include AutoNation, JM Family Enterprises, Broward Health, Memorial Healthcare System and Tenet Healthcare.
"We help our clients reduce the amount of paper being generated," Guerin said. Now there are new opportunities in document management and efficiency with mobile phones and tablets, he said.
Dex Imaging, an independent dealer of Konica Minolta and Kyocera document imaging equipment, has 26 locations in Florida, Tennessee, Maryland, Alabama and Mississippi. One of its primary distribution centers is in Pompano Beach.
With Dex Imaging, Guerin hopes to take the company in new directions. Dex Imaging said it has a goal to take the combined companies to $250 million in annual revenue by 2016.
U.S. Imaging currently has 65 employees, who Guerin said will potentially have new opportunities with Dex Imaging as it grows.
Guerin and Sikes may have sold their company but say they’re staying on in new roles, and the Fort Lauderdale office will continue as a "stand-alone" operation.
"Britt and I aren’t going anywhere," Guerin said.
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