what’s happening Andy here I am joined

today by Mark Grace Mark is with ibpi

how are you what’s happening Mark I am

wonderful Andy I am not I’m not Andy

slowitski level great but I’m very close

very close

well it’s great to see you the last time

I saw you was down in Florida you guys

had a walk through at high tech

um you had a board meeting down there

and of course we uh we were able to

squeeze a little golf in and

um what a great day I I

I got a little golf in earlier real

early this morning here it’s it’s sunny

it’s warm here so we’re finally getting

to that time of year

um there’s my my son from it and uh we

got we got our eyes we got some uh got

some special limited edition very much

limited edition hats we will make sure

to get these to the right people so

um we last time I talked to you you were

just in the process of going through

some some stuff you were doing your

Audits and getting your rebates ready so

um I think we’re at that point you’re

gonna we’re gonna talk today a little

bit about uh the rebates uh before we

start you know

just jumping in on everything let’s

let’s take a step back and why don’t you

give us the 30 000 foot view you know

who who is ibpi for those that don’t

know sure sure so ibpi

is the office equipment Industries

largest buying group we

started in 87 with about 50 dealers that

got together and they actually went to

Caton and said hey if we buy a million

dollars worth of parks which was a lot

back in 87.

um

will you give us a good deal and they

did and uh that was the formation of

ibpi so

fast forward

36 years later

and we’ve grown from 50 members to about

525 office equipment dealers across the

country Canada Caribbean and we’ve grown

from one partnership to about 37

different vendor partners that we have

in our group now

37 different vendors so and these are

these are vendors that that companies

are doing business with every day you

know I mentioned we just saw you down

there at high tech uh you were walking

your board through high tech was a

recent one that you signed up you have

lots of others you mentioned

um Kate and clover I think is one as

well uh who are some of the let’s get

some plugs who are some of you yeah yeah

so um are you gonna leave anybody else

but um

a lot of names that you’ve heard of yeah

you can go to ibpi.net vendors and see

uh the list of all of our Partnerships

that we have and click on their links

and go directly to their web pages but

um we we our newest vendor is high tech

right there over your shoulder uh we

just visited them in Orlando but we also

have names everybody’s heard of over

okay Pollock and Pollock CET group

connectwise

um we’ve probably got some that people

have never heard of as well

um digit Tech Systems is a fairly new

one that document document management

system

um Evo B2B is our credit card processor

um Eda is our sales lead generation uh

modern sales training Derek Chevy uh

great guy does um sales training he is

he is a part of our group so there there

are a lot we Andy we try to think of

anything that an office equipment dealer

might use and we try to set up a

partnership for that service for product

well you guys you guys do a great job

with connecting dealers and and by the

way vendors it’s a great opportunity for

vendors if you’re not one of these 37

vendors on that list um and you know me

I’m happy to get you in touch with with

Mark it’s a growing group it has most of

the dealers uh in you know in our world

our our members

um not all but most and and now you know

we’ve got people on the board of all

sizes I it was great seeing Doug

albrecht’s there and uh Kevin from UTech

and you know we’ve seen chip Maselli in

the past and extreme and Bob Evans and

you know just a who’s whose list of uh

people on your board that that you know

have have pitched in over the years to

help help keep things moving and

um one of the things we talked about

last time I wanted to check in maybe and

just find out how how it’s going is that

is the uh swap meet right so

um you had you had set something up it

was very similar

um it was swimmer like the old swap

sheets back in the day right you know I

have this somebody might want to buy so

why don’t you tell us how it’s going

first of all explain what it is again

um because most of you if you’re at a

dealership chances are you’re probably a

member of ibpi uh and and so this is

something that you guys are able to

participate in and so Mark explain that

please yeah so this is uh service that’s

on the members only section of the ibpi

website need to be logged in to be able

to see it uh we had still have so many

members contact us saying hey do you

know uh uh Rico dealer um I’m I’m

looking for a park on an old machine

that I I can’t find anywhere else or I’m

looking for for toner or a drum kit or

something along those lines so

we had so many requests for that we went

to our web design company and said hey

if if we kind of

planned a swap meet type function for

our website to where

our members could just take a

spreadsheet

um upload obsolete excess inventory

things that they want to sell that they

really can’t use in their own business

um could we could we put that up there

and just put it up there for a sec so we

created that and that is there we have

so many members taking advantage of that

we have thousands of products listed on

the swap meet so if you’re looking for

something

that’s maybe out of the ordinary or

maybe you’re looking to kind of gobble

up some inventory that another dealer

took in as a competitive replacement

um that they’re just looking to get rid

of stuff that’s the place to go uh does

not cost anything for the service we

don’t charge uh binders fee or anything

the contact information for the selling

dealer is on the swap meet you can

contact them directly make your own deal

for that product and they’ll ship it to

you so it’s it’s been used quite a bit

amongst our members

um but there’s room for it to grow we’d

love to have everybody using that so

that’s amazing because you know when we

did this last time and discussed that it

you know obviously just launching so you

literally had I think two or three

companies on there with just a handful

of it was more of does it work yes it

works yeah right and and people were

just but but it wasn’t really being used

yet and and I was a little hesitant to

even ask about it because I didn’t know

if you know how um how it was going and

so yeah thousands and to have an

inventory like that uh that’s just

fantastic it’s basically like you have

your own inventory of just about

anything you want and it’s all stuff

that other companies are trying to get

rid of and it’s probably right based in

their you know on their shelves and

um what a great way for you to you know

help connect dealers like that to each

other

um

we have a big a big event though right

now that we want to talk about right so

you guys um what was it 1987 you said

you started 1980 87 right no 87 so

that’s at least you know almost a

million years old by my horrible man

um and then you hit a milestone this

year with the rebates yeah we did we

were we’re so excited

um so our our best year ever for member

rebates was 2018. uh we we just we

killed it that year

and we ended up returning a little over

900 Grand in rebates back to our members

for their 2018 purchases uh 2019 was

right there on its heels had another

great year and then 2020 came along and

uh we all know the story of what

happened there I don’t remember

something crazy yeah something some

little something happened but um you

know that kind of towards the middle to

the end of 2020 I thought you know we’ll

never get back to being able to

distribute 900 Grand in rebates again so

um

but 2020 and ended up not being too bad

because even though our print Partners

were down the managed Services guys

killed it right everybody was working

from home and managed Services uh

purchases were through the roof that

continued into 21 had another good year

in 21.

um But Here Comes 2022 and supply chain

issues

um and the supply chain issues hit the

oems

harder than it hits our print partners

so for the first time a lot of our

members are kind of forced

to try out our print partners for the

first time and

they do it and they think hey I should

have been doing this all along

um this has been great so

the first two quarters of 22 first and

second quarter of 22 uh were our two

best quarters in our history

um they were our two best quarters for a

lot of our print partners

since they’d been with ibpi and it was

all supply chain driven

um that was followed up by very good

third and fourth quarters

um

and Andy I I can’t tell you how excited

I am that we ended up

um

returning a billion dollars a million

dollars in rebates to our members for

their 2022 purchases and I didn’t think

we would ever see that this is one of

the things I wanted to do when wanted to

achieve when I started at ibpi

um and we have we finally hit it so

the checks are literally in the mail as

we speak today

uh and we are returning a total of a

million dollars in rebates back to our

members for their 2022-13 that is

absolutely outstanding I feel like I

feel like I should have had some

champagne out or something yeah um what

a what a what a Monumental

um what a just incredible uh event for

you guys just to be able to reach that

you know reach that Pinnacle like that

that’s just I don’t know where you go

from here but you know what really

it the thing to me that I think is is

really incredible is you know when all

of these you know and I don’t care what

brand you have all of them had issues uh

one of you know one of them had better

issues some had better times than others

yeah they all had issues right

um but but the partners that are you

know the dealer Partners the ones that

have been around forever the ones that

you guys have been working with that

you’ve collected and brought into this

portfolio uh for for your members you

know really stepped up right and and

These Guys these dealers were desperate

their oems didn’t have product their

oems didn’t have

um supplies they didn’t have Parts in

many cases and so what are you gonna do

well you’re going to turn to ibpi you’re

going to look through that catalog

um you’re going to turn to that swap

meet and you’re gonna find you’re gonna

find what you need and you’re gonna you

know kudos to you for for

um making that happen and hitting that

you know hitting that Milestone a

million dollars in rebate checks and

last year

um it was 800 plus thousand dollars I

thought that was incredible I yeah he’s

Blown Away by that but you know

obviously hitting the million that’s

that’s nuts that’s amazing and

um so so you’re mailing out the checks

we missed the um the chance to do it in

Orlando this time you guys didn’t have

that same meeting you did this last year

so um what’s what’s next for you guys

what do you have coming up

so we have a couple of things coming up

in the future is um our ibpi connect

annual event taking place August 28th

through the 30th in Boston we are

co-locating with BTA national uh looking

forward to that we will open

registration in about six weeks

um to our members uh probably will sell

out that event I’ve had so many people

tell me how excited today we are that

they are that we’re going to Boston this

year

um I can’t believe how many people have

never been to Boston so

um a lot of folks looking forward to

that trip and uh we’re looking forward

to put putting it on at the end of

August

um Boston’s a great town they’re going

to have a good time there I’ve been to

BTA events there in the past and it’s

just a you know it’s a great spot it’s

it’s New England in the in the summer

it’s it’s a nice place it’s cool a

little cooler so um I’m excited for this

it’s a good choice

yeah um we’re we’re excited about it too

um one other thing that’s happening

there is actually happened

um that happened last week actually was

we added a new feature to our website

which we’re by the way we’re doing all

the time if you haven’t been on the ibpi

website in a while

take five minutes log in poke around

you’re going to see the swap meet that

Andy talked about you’re going to see

our vendor Search tool so you can find

out if you’re a Canon dealer and you

want to know which ibpi members are

selling Canon compatible toner you can

do that at our vendor Search tool one

thing that we just added last week

though was the ability to see your own

purchases over the last five years from

every one of our vendors so we have a

new purchasing tab on the website so

once you get logged in click on that

purchasing Tab and you’ll see a nice

little graph there of how many vendors

you’re buying from and what those

purchase amounts have been over each of

the last five years so make sure you

check that out as well

so that’s got to help with organization

right I mean to be able to keep track of

your rebates to see where you stand for

the year

um

and then I would imagine it gives you a

little exposure to some of the other

companies there as well so that maybe

maybe you can um uh learn I don’t know

does it tie-in you you had a tool last

time that that we talked about the

Search tool is it is it have anything to

do with that or is this completely

separate the vendor Search tool yeah

it’s completely separate you can you can

use the search tool to find an ibpi

vendor if you want to know who sells a

Canon product or a Ricoh product or if

you just want to know for example hey

what does uh what is pollock and poll

Excel what is the na trading sell then

then you can find that out through that

vendor Search tool this is a totally

separate feature of the website

where you can go and it’s updated

quarterly as we get our purchasing

reports in and you can see your

purchases for every vendor over the last

five years including the current year so

we it’s just a more transparent feature

for us to allow our members to see what

they’re buying from all of our vendors

um in on an on-demand basis you used to

have to kind of wait till we had our

orderly Business Review with you but

that’s no longer you can see that

anytime that you want uh going forward

and it’s only your stuff you’re not

you’re not looking at anything all right

no no right you’re not seeing

everybody’s you’re only seeing uh the

purchases for your dealership does it

does it show you total purchases just

aggregate for uh yeah yeah so it it

gives you uh your total purchases for uh

every vendor and then it totals it

across that vendor and then it also

totals it down for the year oh wow very

cool so that what a great way to find

you know a hot vendor maybe that

everybody is using and then you turn

around and think why am I not what am I

missing right there you go now

contact them but also contact them

knowing you’re going to get you know

good negotiated pricing

and then a rebate check for your

purchase that you were probably yeah

we hope that kind of Spurs along some

some transparency and and also some

purchases for some of our vendors

and and then that would of course

increase rebates Andy I don’t I don’t

think you know this but I don’t know if

everybody does it costs 500 one time not

annually it’s one time to join ibpi and

there there are literally dozens of ibpi

members that have paid their 500 bucks

to ibpi at some point in the past and

they have uh fixed figures in rebates

from us over the years so

I mean I don’t I hate to say that it’s

risk-free but

gosh it’s the closest thing I’ve ever

seen to a risk-free investment for for

500 bucks then you can potentially get

six figures and rebates back over the

years

uh sounds like a no-brainer to me for

stuff you’re already buying you’re

already buying from Pollock and from

Clover and from Kate and from you know

from all the companies that we mentioned

so high tech and these are companies

you’re already doing business with uh

but now you know a you may get better

pricing through ibpi very possibly

depending on the size of your dealership

and then B you’re going to get a rebate

at the end anyway so you know it’s just

why not why for those of you that are

not members yet and there’s very few of

you that aren’t there’s over 500 members

if I remember correctly

um so it’s it’s this has been great I

love catching up with you uh I think

have a happy summer we’ll we won’t see

you probably until August but you never

know I I do get down to your way every

now and then yeah

I’ll let you know if I’m down there and

uh please do please do I want to uh want

to have you win some more money from me

at the at the golf course as you always

I don’t think I’ve ever won a dime

golfing in my entire life

so I’ll keep my day job and uh you keep

yours as well although I will you are uh

you do hit him pretty good I’m excited

to come see you next time so

um we will talk soon this is great Mark

thanks for catching up with us and and

you have a great rest of your week thank

you Andy