Syracuse–based Avalon grows in Buffalo

SYRACUSE — Avalon Document Services is expanding its business in the Buffalo area thanks to a merger with a copy center there that got its start in 1945.

Syracuse–based Avalon announced the merger with Delaware Copy and Repro Center in February.

Former Delaware Copy President Jim Knight called Avalon when he decided to retire after 37 years. Knight’s grandfather started Delaware Copy and Knight himself has been working for the business since he was 19.

Knight says he didn’t want to leave his longtime customers without an option for copying when he closed up shop. Delaware Copy worked with many lawyers, architects, and engineers on sensitive projects like plans for major developments.

“They have the same type of customer-service thinking that I have,” Knight says of Avalon. “It’s a good feeling. I’m going out with some class.

“It’s just gone really good and [customers] have really appreciated the fact that I’m not just letting them hang out there.”

Delaware Copy’s operations merged into Avalon’s location at 721 Main St. with the deal.

Avalon opened its Buffalo office in 2008. The decision to say “yes” was an easy one when Knight called asking about a merger, Avalon CEO JP Midgley says.

Delaware Copy has been around for decades and cultivated some serious customer loyalty in that span, Midgley says. Knight worked with companies in the Buffalo area that Avalon had been pursuing since it arrived in the market, Midgley adds.

Knight is staying on to work as a consultant with Avalon during the transition period. That should make moving clients over to the new company much easier, Midgley says.

“Jim is able to make one phone call and the next day we walk through the door and have a meeting with those people,” he says. “Every business has clients who are super loyal and no matter who comes along, they will never leave those businesses.”

“[Knight] wanted to make sure his clients were taken care of.”

Avalon employs about 25 people in Buffalo and 75 companywide. The firm retained two of Delaware Copy’s five employees, Midgley says. Avalon has additional locations in Utica and Rochester.

The firm launched in 2000. Avalon handles general business copying, but also focuses on some specific industry niches, Midgley says.

They include architects and engineers and law firms and litigation support. And while some of that work involves physical documents, much is now handled digitally, Midgley notes.

Contractors looking to bid on a new building project, for example, don’t have to wait for production of traditional blueprints anymore, he says. Avalon has created document rooms online where they can view detailed plans.

Avalon also works on digitizing physical records for law firms, insurance agencies, health care providers, and other professional services firms.

Midgley notes that many document companies will focus on just one of those niches. Avalon’s success is partially the result of its breadth, he says.

Midgley and Shawn Thrall acquired Avalon in 2011 from its founder Jon Denney and other shareholders. Both were longtime employees.

Avalon generated $6.1 million in revenue in 2012.