MARCY — Business Machines & Equipment, Inc. (BME), a growing Mohawk Valley office-supply company, is under new ownership, and a new affiliation with Hummel’s Office Plus. BME, which employs 12 people and operates in leased space at 9443 River Road in Marcy, announced the transaction in a recent news release. The company provides copiers, fax […]
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MARCY — Business Machines & Equipment, Inc. (BME), a growing Mohawk Valley office-supply company, is under new ownership, and a new affiliation with Hummel’s Office Plus.
BME, which employs 12 people and operates in leased space at 9443 River Road in Marcy, announced the transaction in a recent news release.
The company provides copiers, fax machines, and printers, according to its website.
Harrison (Chip) Hummel III, chairman of the board of directors of Hummel’s, has “taken a majority stake” in the BME firm and now serves as its president.
Steve Mitchell, BME’s vice president of sales and development, is also one of the firm’s co-owners.
“We’re just going to be … affiliated with Hummel’s Office Plus,” says Mitchell.
Hummel’s is an 80-year-old, family-owned office-supply company headquartered in Mohawk in Herkimer County. It employs about 90 people.
Mitchell declined to disclose any terms of the transaction adjusting the company’s ownership. He secured his original ownership stake when he joined BME in April 2013, he says.
“We’re running it as a sister company [to Hummel’s Office Plus] but Chip and I [co-own] the company,” says Mitchell.
Chip Hummel is the majority owner, and Mitchell referred to himself as a “significant” partner, declining to provide percentages of ownership.
James (Jim) and Georgiann Lambert, BME’s founders, have retained an ownership stake in the company, but plan to retire on Dec. 31.
“They own a small percentage, and they’re going to be staying on during the transition … through 2014,” says Mitchell.
The Lamberts will maintain their ownership stake after they retire, he added.
Chip Hummel and Jim Lambert have known each other “for years,” says Mitchell. The discussions on the transaction started in 2013 and continued for about eight or nine months.
“He [Hummel] invested and I invested. I owned a small stake in 2013 and then I took a larger stake at the same time Chip did in 2014,” says Mitchell.
All the parties involved utilized legal advice as the transaction unfolded, but Mitchell declined to disclose any of the attorneys involved.
“Eventually our distribution and machines and supplies will be [handled] at the Hummel’s office,” says Mitchell.
Most of those functions are currently performed at the BME’s site in Marcy, he says. Hummel’s will also “eventually” handle most of BME’s warehousing and delivery as well, he adds.
Hummel’s may start doing those functions for BME in early 2015, says Mitchell.
In addition to its corporate office in Mohawk, Hummel’s Office Plus has a sales office in DeWitt, and retail locations in Herkimer, Rome, Cortland, and Norwich, according to its website.
Mitchell contends that BME’s software, which allows it to monitor its customers’ copiers and printers, is one of the reasons Hummel invested in BME.
The software helps BME monitor its customers’ supply levels, enabling it to ship replacement supplies, if need be.
We’re able to be much more of a proactive company versus a reactive company,” says Mitchell.
Keeping it local
He noted the number of acquisitions in the office-supply business around the nation, including Xerox’s activity and Tokyo, Japan–based Ricoh Company, Ltd.’s acquisition of IKON Office Solutions, Inc. in October 2008.
Mitchell wants BME to remain a “local” business, he says.
“We really think the local company has value to add to the marketplace, so we want to be a local dealership, a local partner and help companies with their document management,” says Mitchell.
The 20-year veteran of the office-machine industry invested to secure a bigger piece of the BME ownership to “be part of something that’s growing, and I believe now is the right time with Canon in the greater Utica marketplace.”
As an authorized dealer for Melville, N.Y.–based Canon U.S.A., Inc., Canon had to “approve” the ownership transaction so BME could continue as one of its dealers, says Mitchell.
BME would like to add two full-time workers to its current staff of 12 full-time employees, before the end of the year. The new hires would fill positions in sales and service, says Mitchell.
“We’re looking to grow,” he adds.
He described 2013 as “a record year with double-digit growth. [In] 2014, we’re annualizing with the same double-digit growth over 2013,” he says.
BME works with “thousands” of customers, Mitchell adds.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
