“I just hired a maintenance technician and a salesperson. »
No right to sell brands other than Xerox, no right to market outside the borders of Charente, no right to manage maintenance, supplier monopoly. “Except that recently, our customers have been complaining more and more, particularly about the maintenance of our products via a hotline abroad.”
Take back control of maintenance
EB16 therefore decided to regain his freedom. “Since the beginning of October, we have no longer sold Xerox, we have opted for very eco-responsible products from Epson and a more standard range from Ricoh to meet our customers who are mainly local VSEs and SMEs.” Thanks in particular to these “cold ink” photocopiers/printers, which consume 90% less energy, but also to maintenance managed internally and locally, Frédéric Thomas and his teams, 14 employees today, hope to gain new new market shares, in Charente and beyond. “I have just hired a maintenance technician, but also a salesperson who will be in charge of new departments.” The Charente SME hopes in particular to find a place in the departments “between Charente and the center of France”.
Enough, the entrepreneur predicts, to show double-digit growth in 2025 and 2026. “We were more between 3 and 5% in recent years”. EB16 increased from 2.2 million in 2019 to 3 million turnover in 2024.
To achieve this ambitious objective, the company is also counting on the development of other of its services, in particular dematerialization solutions. “Companies increasingly need to go digital, and soon even very small businesses and craftsmen will have to go through the public invoicing portal to invoice, and will need suitable software,” enthuses Frédéric Thomas, which forecasts growth of 20 to 30% in this segment.
He is convinced that the strength of a small company like EB16 is being able to be a single, local contact for craftsmen or small business owners, who often prefer someone to manage all of their equipment: PC , cybersecurity, printers, office furniture. For office furniture, EB16 has “trained its teams with an ergonomist” to offer complete office layouts and adapted equipment.
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