Highland Office Equipment (also known as HOE) has joined forces with award-winning Capital Document Solutions to become a national Scottish company with a strong local presence.
The family-run firm is based at Harbour Road, Inverness. It has an outstanding reputation for supplying leading brands and supporting clients with first class service and after-sales care.
The same standards are shared by Capital. They acquired HOE in February, to complement and expand existing operations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen and Shetland.
Tom Flockhart, Capital’s managing director, said: “Collectively we’re all passionate about providing clients with a choice of market-leading brands and a truly outstanding national service with local support for the public, private and third sectors.”
Prior to the merger, HOE was excluded from supplying office equipment to public sector organisations in the Highlands and Islands. As a regional company it did not meet the national coverage requirements of the government’s Office Equipment Framework Agreement.
Now, as part of Capital, it can bid for these contracts. Capital is already established as a major supplier to the Scottish public sector. In fact, it won the prestigious Best Service Award at the Government Opportunities (GO) Awards Scotland in 2012, in recognition of the high level and quality of its services in this sector.
Alex Main, sales director at HOE
Alex Main is HOE’s sales director and son of founding director Bill Main.
“Capital’s proven expertise and reputation in the major corporate and public sector markets will benefit our existing as well as new customers. We’ll continue to fully support businesses in the north with the additional capability and capacity of being part of a large independent Scottish company.”
The office equipment experts also specialise in delivering bespoke document solutions. These complement their wide range of copy/print/scan devices that help customers make substantial reductions in the number of devices in their organisation. In addition, this frees up valuable desk and floor space, reduces carbon footprint and delivers real savings.
Tom Flockhart said: “Both companies started out selling photocopiers when these were stand-alone devices. Now they are an all-in-one multifunctional device (MFD) that provides copy, print, scan and fax.
“Many established businesses still have a sizeable fleet and mix of devices in use. These are largely uncontrolled and unnecessarily expensive to run. With modern technology and print management software we can reduce the number of devices needed and make some significant savings for the customer. This approach is increasingly important for businesses during a recession.
“Typically we see a 70 per cent reduction in devices deployed and a saving of up to 40 per cent.”
Capital recently conducted and audit for a local authority headquarters.
There were 190 devices producing 6.2 million copies/prints annually. After carrying out a detailed audit of all the devices, locations, colour and mono page volumes, Capital’s report concluded the client’s optimum device requirement was for only 59 MFDs and printers. This produced savings of £43,000 a year.
Capital and HOE now have a combined workforce of 200 across the six regional offices. They are currently undergoing cross-training. This will ensure both new and existing clients receive the best information and service on the entire product range. The merger will also lead to additional employment and training opportunities at the Inverness branch.
“We have a track record of supporting the areas in which we operate by developing service engineer apprentices and creating new sales and technical support roles to help clients’ businesses run more smoothly,” Tom Flockhart said.
Finally, article written and published by Executive Magazine April 2013.
Posted in About Us, Entrepreneurship, Scottish Procurement
