Lake Country Office Solutions Wins National Award!

Author: Michele Lawson

Text Size

Orillia resident and Rotarian Peter Borutski, president of Lake Country Office Solutions, wants to work with his neighbours to provide win-win business solutions.

With two very different but complementary businesses now running under one roof, new and changing offices have a one-stop set-up shop.
Lake Country Office Solutions opened in 2002 to provide businesses with office equipment. Now called multi-function machines, “copiers” can print, fax, scan and photocopy. Whether it’s the smaller home-office version that retails for about $500 each or a commercial unit for $65,000, they all do virtually the same job.
“Our bread and butter is our small to mid-sized machines, says president Peter Borutski, who has many years of experience in business equipment sales and service. An extensive on-hand inventory means orders can be filled immediately to avoid downtime for his clients.
In October 2006, he purchased existing company Hamilton & Company, an independent commercial furniture supplier that allowed him to cross sell between the distinct client lists.
“We experienced a 150-per-cent growth in furniture sales in the first year,” he recalls. His suppliers told him to keep on doing whatever he was doing. Sales this year will reach $2 million, he projects.
Recognition has come along with the sales. Lake Country Office Solutions recently achieved accreditation as a member of the “president’s Club’ with Konica/Minolta, as one of the top dealers in Canada.
It’s mostly about customer service and affordable, quality products, Borutski says. He left his previous job at a rival company in Barrie because a large American company bought out his independent boss and encouraged him to ignore some long-time customers. The award-winning salesman felt it wasn’t a great strategy for growth, so he went off on his own.
Those neglected customers were happy to see him back, he says.
Borutski and his small team were all service-trained sales consultants, so they could talk knowledgeably about hardware, networks and sales. His current team members are all as multi-functioning as the equipment they sell. As consultants, they perform a needs analysis for their clients so the right solution can be found.
And, if it’s money that’s needed, they offer leases. Usually lasting about three years, he says he can pretty much guarantee now the lease he’ll re-finance in three years will cost the same for an improved machine.
The company is authorized to deal with Konica Minolta, Muratec, Oki-data and Samsung. And Konica/Minolta has the exclusive rights to use a state-of-the-art biometrics security system on their units.
The off-leases are refurbished and sent back out, or stripped and scraped.
His clients don’t have a personal attachment to copiers, he says, so it’s not an issue to replace them regularly.
On the Hamilton & Company side of things, though people get very excited about a new chair and want to own it when the term of the lease is expired, so that’s the way the agreements are drawn up – it’s a lease-to-own structure.
“There’s a science to this industry,” he says. For example, the fabric chosen for a chair could be determined by the number of times you stand up in a day. “There’s a whole logistics of furniture.”
And, where a copier can be installed in about an hour, furniture comes in many pieces and requires knowledgeable installation.
“It’s a fairly complicated system,” he acknowledges.
He is pleased, then, to have the employees of the former Hamilton & Company now on his team. Their experience in the furniture, and their ability to offer space planning and detailed AutoCAD drawings to accompany the furniture, has been a plus.
“Space planning is a very big part of what we do,” he says. Sometimes, they’ll do the planning as a service in itself for clients who move or have staff adjustments.
“People are looking for the most cost-effective use of their space,” he adds.
For more information, call 326-0907.