Future Proof: Jim Leyden, Bizquip

When Jim Leyden set up Bizquip 30 years ago, his main business was the distribution and servicing of Ricoh photocopiers. Then customers began asking for stationery supplies and office furniture, and Leyden saw the opportunity to expand into new areas.

Since then, Bizquip has grown, both organically and by acquisition, buying T&D Norton and Stationery & Office Supplies in the late 1990s.

At the peak of the boom, Bizquip employed 63 people and had a turnover of €15 million. “Then,” Leyden says, “things dropped off a cliff. Turnover dropped as low as €7 million and staff numbers to 40. There was natural wastage but I also had to let people go. That was singularly the most difficult thing I have ever had to do in business.”

Leyden says that having lost money in 2008 and in 2009, Bizquip is now regaining ground. Growth in 2012 was up 16 per cent on 2011, staff numbers have increased to 50 people and some of those let go have been re-employed. Turnover is also recovering and will be just shy of €10 million this year.

Dublin area

Bizquip operates only in the greater Dublin area and even during the boom, Leyden resisted the temptation to expand geographically. “Our centre is Dublin where we know our market thoroughly and can service it to a very high standard,” he says. “The quality of our service is our hallmark and what differentiates us within our industry.

“Price might be the decider for something like paper but if you’re buying an expensive machine, you want to know back-up is guaranteed. Price is a perception; of more relevance is value. We’re quite happy to be benchmarked to prove our value proposition . . .

“As a small Irish company, there are areas where we struggle as our main competition comes from multinationals who can use group resources to outprice us,” Leyden adds.

“You have to fight it with service and support. We have a really fast response time and pride ourselves on our high ‘first-fix’ rate.

“Basically we’re big enough to cope and small enough to care. We’re going into our fourth decade and have had some of our customers for 25 years.”

Bizquip recently invested more than €80,000 in a new technology showroom suite.

Leyden says one of the biggest challenges of the recession has been balancing the need to cut with the need to reinvest. “There are only so many overheads you can cut and when you get to the bottom of the barrel, the only way out is to put a huge effort into increasing sales.

“We have also weathered the storm because we have a very strong credit and financial team who constantly keep on top of things, keeping bad debts low – just €2,000 on a turnover of €9 million last year. We still chase every lead but with less emphasis on winning large contracts. We’d prefer five at €10,000 to one at €50,000 in case it goes wrong.”

At the time of the downsizing, remaining staff all took a 10 per cent pay cut. Leyden says half of that has now been restored. “I want to reinstate the other 5 per cent but the question is how to do it without compromising the progress we’ve already made. In my view, the best way forward is a healthy order book.”

Leyden admits to being a workaholic who likes to be "doing" rather than sitting in meetings. "I'm not into death by PowerPoint and I'm certainly not into big meetings. I think you accomplish much more one to one or by having just the relevant people in the room."

Gut instinct

His advice to those starting a business is to “work at building a relationship with your bank (we’ve had the same one for 30 years) and do the same with a solicitor, an accountant and an insurance broker, and keep them in the loop about what’s happening in your business. Then when you need them they’re up to speed,” he says.

“The last few years have been very tough – the two lowest points were making people redundant and suffering an internal fraud that set us back €100,000.

“With all due respect to management gurus, many of whom I’ve read, there is no manual for any of this. You have to use your gut instinct and experience to get you through.”