Telec Inc., a three-decades-old Springfield telecommunications provider, officially became Tech Electronics of Springfield on Nov. 5 after being acquired by St. Louis-based Tech Electronics LLC.
Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Telec owner Jennifer Huxley said the deal did not involve a lender or business broker.
Huxley now serves as Tech Electronics of Springfield’s branch director at 1900 E. Chestnut Expressway, where 11 voice, data and video system specialists serve roughly 500 clients. All staff members were retained, she said.
The Springfield branch is on pace to post revenues of $2 million in fiscal 2011, which ends in March, according to Huxley. She said this year’s projection, which includes pending contracts, is a 20 percent bump compared to the last two years when sales ended at around $1.6 million each.
Telec provides telecommunications services to businesses, and Huxley says it’s known for installing Mitel phone systems and Brocade data networking and storage equipment. She said the move to Tech Electronics, which employs 220 and projects revenues of $35 million in 2010, has been in the works for a long time.
“We got to know them about 25 years ago, and we’ve compared notes and talked at every business meeting we’ve attended. We have a lot of similarities,” Huxley said. “I’ve known that they’ve wanted to come into this area for quite some time.”
Huxley said both companies are longtime Mitel distributors, and members of each family-owned business has known each other from years of attending the same business conferences. Huxley’s father, Jack Skaggs, founded Telec in 1976 as a division of Audio Acoustics Inc. before it became an independent corporation in 1995.
The Springfield office is Tech Electronic’s third in Missouri. Others are in St. Louis and Columbia. According to a company news release, Tech Electronics was founded in 1963 and is an independent communication systems provider with more than 10,000 clients in the government, health care and education industries.
Tech Electronics President Kurt Canova said the purchase of Telec is part of the company’s expansion strategy to join forces with businesses that provide similar products and services. The company is considering expansion in Kansas City; Nashville, Tenn.; Indianapolis; and Springfield, Ill.
“Our company put together a strategy three or four years ago to expand,” Canova said. “Geographic expansion was important to us, and we felt it would provide growth and better support for our manufacturers.”
One of Telec’s biggest accounts, Huxley said, is Oxford Healthcare. Phil Dasal, Oxford’s director of information technology, says the regional home health care provider has been a Telec client for at least 14 years, and it has no plans to shop around now.
“We have five offices in four cities and (Telec) has always been able to provide us with the service we expect,” Dasal said.
Oxford receives voice-over Internet Protocol service, as well as voice mail and call center applications for a network of more than 400 phones, Huxley said.
Dasal said he was recently notified about the change in ownership and was glad to learn no personnel changes were planned.
“From what I understand, all the same people we’ve dealt with will still be in place, and if anything, they may have more resources to fall upon,” Dasal said.
According to Canova, Tech Electronics is bringing fire and security services to Telec’s Springfield customers.[[In-content Ad]]
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