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Local Reman Toner Buss Grosses More Than $1 million in Sales
Building a business on born-again toner cartridges
KINGSTON — That expensive toner cartridge you used and are about to throw away could be remanufactured and reused up to eight more times.
So says Jeff Petersen, president of Olympic Printer Resources Inc., a small locally grown business that for the past two decades has gathered old cartridges, rebuilt them and sold them at prices 20 percent to 50 percent below new cartridges. Last year, OPR grossed more than $1 million in sales.
Young men stand at workbenches inside the company tucked into the Arbor Business Park. Slim, cigar-like cylinders fill boxes that are stacked everywhere. Once rebuilt, the born-again cartridges will be packaged in reusable mylar bags and cardboard boxes before getting tossed onto the waiting United Parcel Service truck.
OPR is among a tiny handful of similar local companies that compete and sometimes succeed against big-box stores that also collect, remake and sell toner cartridges at discount. Laser Solutions and The Printer People of Bremerton are others. Petersen complains that the big stores outsource the work, which does nothing for local job creation."We are about the environment, we care about people, and the success of the business is because of the people I have," said Petersen, 60.
OPR remanufactured 8,500 cartridges from laser printers, fax machines and printers last year. Petersen figures his business kept 23 tons of cartridges out of landfills in 2011.
His 3,500 clients consist of government offices including some Kitsap County offices, school districts including Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap, medical and professional offices, and small-business people.
Printer cartridges await refurbishing at Olympic Printer Resources Inc. of Kingston. Two-thirds of his business is on the west side of Puget Sound. The rest is on the Interstate 5 corridor. Last year, he bought out a Clallam County competitor.
While son Erik runs day-to-day operations, Petersen’s on the road much of the time, following new leads.
"The problem is, I never stop working," he said.
Capturing new business is crucial. While sales at the company have steadily risen every year since it began in 1993, this year it is running nearly 6 percent below last year. The slow economy and companies going paperless are to blame.
"It’s forced us to get leaner, how we do stuff," Petersen said.
That’s meant cutting a staff of 14 to the present 10, and tossing no part before its time.
He’s played the service card, offering clients tech support, and provided them with ancillary items such as ink jets for their convenience.
"I have to find more customers and keep the ones I have by giving service," he said.
At a time when business leaders are emphasizing hiring veterans, Petersen, himself an ex-submarine officer and a 1974 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, has been hiring vets for years. Six of his 10 workers have a military service record.
"I like veterans because they’ve demonstrated that they can work for a living," he said. He wishes he had the funds to hire a wounded warrior, he said.
OPR was started by retired Coast Guard Officer Pete DeBoer, a Port of Kingston commissioner. Growing the business one relationship at a time, DeBoer enjoyed success and moved into bigger quarters in a strip mall on Highway 104 in Kingston before expanding into its present location.
Petersen came onboard later and has been buying the business from DeBoer.
OPR has received accolades for its support of veterans and for its environmental agenda. In August, it was recognized by the American Legion’s Washington Department as the state’s small business of the year for hiring vets. In 2008, it received an Earth Day award for environmental leadership from Kitsap County.
Even though the current economy is difficult, Petersen’s confident about the future of his business. He’d like to have a storage and distribution center in Yelm, where his family has property.
"People are always going to print stuff," he said.
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