Corporate Business Systems buys Joplin competitor

The company purchased the assets of Joplin-based Office Solutions Inc., including an office and five staff members, from owner Roger Balsly in a deal that closed Nov. 1. The Joplin office, 3111 S. Range Line Road, offers high-volume production systems, color and wide-format printers, mailing systems and document management.

Office Solutions recorded $1 million in fiscal 2006 revenues, Balsly said, while Corporate Business Systems posted $10 million in revenues.

Brian Peltier, Corporate Business Systems’ vice president and general manager, said the purchase expands CBS’ offerings in Joplin, where it has been doing business for about 11 years.

“We had an office there and salespeople that worked from that office there, but with Roger’s interest in us buying his company, and our goal to make Joplin more prominent, it all came together,” Peltier said.

Peltier said that terms of the sale could not be disclosed due to a confidentiality clause in the agreement.

The deal also made sense because the companies both offered the same line of Kyocera Mita office products, meaning that Office Solutions’ employees didn’t need additional training.

CBS’ leased space on Range Line Road currently houses the combined staff of the two companies, though Peltier said the plan is to eventually move the entire generation into its own building. No time frame has been set for that move.

Balsly, who is based in Springfield, said the decision to sell his business to Corporate Business Systems owner Jim Quesenberry was based largely on the financial security of Balsly’s employees.

“We came to an agreement that I was satisfied with as far as monetary compensation, and I knew my employees would be better off. They’re working now for a $10 million a year company,” Balsly said, noting that the decision was also based on CBS’ ability to handle large accounts, specifically Freeman Health Systems. “I felt it was in everybody’s best interest.”

Balsly himself had owned Office Solutions for less than three years; he bought the business, then called Office Concepts, in February 2005 from Steven W. Moore Sr.

Moore had seen the company through bankruptcy reorganization in 2003 and contacted Balsly, a former office product industry colleague then living in New Mexico, with an offer to sell the company.

Balsly said he’s now searching for other business opportunities, including franchises.

Corporate Business Systems remains in growth mode beyond the Joplin acquisitions.

In April, it moved into its nearly $2 million Springfield headquarters, 509 S. Cavalier Ave., in the Cherry Street Business Park. The 20,000-square-foot building doubles the company’s previous space.

The company’s third office, in St. Robert, is currently in the same position the Joplin office was in previously – salespeople on hand but no full-time administration to run the office on a daily basis. Peltier said the company hopes to add staff in coming months to make that office self-sufficient.

The company may not be done acquiring, either; Peltier said that CBS is in negotiations on two possible additional acquisitions “in the general vicinity of Springfield.”[[In-content Ad]]