Business Profile: TKH Imaging
by Ronelle Ingram

Trust Keith Harris and Benny Adeva to be able to provide “lower than China pricing” on American-manufactured color and monochrome laser cartridges. These two well-known industry veterans have united their knowledge, skills, marketing ability, and purchasing power to create TKH Imaging LLC. TKH is your source for superior-quality color and black laser cartridges for your most requested printers.

TKH Imaging began its remanufacturing with a small facility of less than 5,000 square feet in November 2005. Just recently, the company moved to a new 17,000-square-foot facility in Southern California. “In less than a year,” states Harris, “TKH Imaging outgrew its original manufacturing facility. Benny Adeva and I are grateful to our loyal customers who have trusted us to fulfill their laser cartridge needs.”

All TKH products are domestically manufactured and shipped from the Southern California factory. Currently, the company has a production and shipping rate of over 10,000 cartridges per month.

TKH Imaging is a subsidiary of ABD Office Machines Inc. and SD Pacific Inc. These two successful industry entities have joined together to create a U.S.-based laser cartridge remanufacturing plant that is successfully competing against Asian imports. The marketing, purchasing, international, and logistics specialty of Keith Harris/SD Pacific was the perfect match for the operational, technical, and economics specialty of Benny Adeva/ABD Office Machines.

“At TKH Imaging, the workmanship of our products is consistently superior.” Harris explains, “We have no standard assembly line. Our staff is well trained to build a cartridge from start to finish. This ‘cell’ type of production not only increases quality, but we are able to build a large variety of cartridges, from the most simple to the most complex. Every cartridge is machine tested. If a specific cartridge does not pass our stringent quality control acceptance requirements, it is returned to the technician who built it. By taking personal responsibility for every cartridge produced, the production crew continues to perfect their remanufacturing skills.

“Our quality can compete equally with any remanufacturing company. Our production crew is headed by two expert laser cartridge veterans with a combined 16 years of hands-on experience remanufacturing toner cartridges. Additionally, the knowledge and support of the ABD-certified technical engineers for Xerox, HP, Brother, and Canon copiers and printers enable TKH to provide consistent quality and technical backup. The results are high-quality toner cartridges that you can trust.”

Harris continues to explain TKH’s manufacturing philosophy: “With each technician taking ownership of the quality of the laser units he produces, we can build cartridges other companies do not offer. This includes the HP43X/9000 series toner cartridge and Brother DR250s. When we can obtain quality color toner and other needed components for proper remanufacturing, our skilled staff can manufacture almost anything you may need.”

Over 33 percent of TKH Imaging’s production is color cartridges. “If a superior-quality product is available, we will make it. We produce excellent quality for the most popular Samsung, Lexmark, Xerox, Brother, Dell, and Canon cartridges. Additionally, TKH Imaging offers a full line of HP monochrome and color remanufactured laser units,” adds Harris.

After years of doing business directly with the Asian sellers, TKH is able to consistently offer “lower than China pricing.” Harris elaborates, “Our buyers are acutely aware of how quickly the playing field changes. The U.S. cartridge remanufacturing market is in an enormous state of flux with purchases, joint ventures, takeovers, buyouts, bankruptcies, etc. We believe that an honest approach is needed to create solidarity between the manufacturer and the reseller. Through an in-depth analysis, we created a table and compared domestic production to imported product costs. We understand labor from China is much cheaper. However, the cost involved for Chinese marketers to import empties and raw materials is much higher than what TKH has been able to negotiate domestically.

“Our goal is to maximize the value we can provide our customers. The savings we accomplish through experienced purchasing power is passed on directly to our customers,” says Harris. He’s able to negotiate with many different suppliers for the best price/quality combination possible. Having previously owned several laser printer factories in China, Harris has first-hand knowledge of the manufacturing needs and abilities of both the East and the West. He intimately understands the international market and how to maximize the value of domestic production. “TKH is able to sell a superior product at a value-added price. Our turnaround is faster. There are no costs from the multiple layers of importer/manufacturer/distributor who are all part of the selling chain from offshore vendors.”

TKH Imaging may be a new name to buyers, but there is a long history of industry knowledge and credibility. The co-parent company ABD Office Machines is a retail-based imaging products company dating back to the early 1980s when typewriters and calculators were still around. During the past 25 years, the company has been able to evolve with the broad spectrum of the imaging industry. During the 1990s, the company specialized in the sales, supplies, and services of new and refurbished copiers, fax machines, and printers. The company was always on top of imaging technology, having highly skilled engineers and service technicians. Its service personnel were certified on high-end Canon CLC, Xerox, Brother, Sharp, and many other makes and models. With this technical expertise, ABD started its laser toner manufacturing division in early 2000.

ABD also has a long history of providing test printers to the remanufacturing industry. As the need to provide various makes and models of printers expanded, ABD’s expertise on HP and other printers grew. Its in-house remanufacturing and quality control department was the key to the quality of its printers and remanufactured supplies. As early as 2002, when poor raw materials were being shipped for the HP4600, ABD was a leader in identifying and fulfilling the needs of the color market by finding innovative ways to re-engineer its cartridges. Its hands-on servicing and rebuilding of high-end color copiers and printers provided ABD with the knowledge and expertise that few other remanufacturers possessed.

SD Pacific Inc., TKH Imaging’s other parent company, established in 1997, has been the dominant force in the toner surplus and imaging industry during the past seven years.  SD Pacific has always embraced the needs of the changing market and the competition it creates. The company started out in the San Francisco Bay area. Harris moved the company to Southern California in 2000. He soon dominated the surplus toner business nationwide. His enormous purchasing power, international savvy, and a keen knowledge of the OEM toner business enabled SD Pacific to sell over $20 million of surplus toner in 2001. Harris reinvested the money earned from the surplus toner business into Sun Dragon, a remanufacturer of ink jet cartridges, in late 2001. Sun Dragon expanded into laser jet cartridges in 2003.

SD Pacific expanded its reach in 2004 to include more international business, including a partnership in Storagemedia.com, which focused on data tape recycling. Harris also partnered to publish Recharge Asia, an Asian-based cartridge remanufacturing magazine. In early 2005, SD sold off the surplus toner division and Sun Dragon. Harris and SD Pacific entered into a joint venture with ABD Office Machines, establishing a cartridge remanufacturing facility in Irvine, Calif.

“I have always worked hard,” Harris says. “I am glad to be given an opportunity, as an American, to make my dreams a reality.”

By November 2005, SD Pacific and ABD Office Machines officially merged the laser remanufacturing divisions becoming TKH Imaging LLC in Brea, Calif. In 2006, TKH Imaging officially bought the data tape division formerly owned by SD Pacific.

“The future is now,” says Harris. “Our goal is to create a superior remanufactured product at a value-added price while always taking into consideration patent restrictions, professionalism, ease of use, quality control, customer relations, and true value.” Benny Adeva and Keith Harris have joined forces to provide compatibles sellers with a local, viable alternative to offshore purchasing.

Keith Harris
TKH Imaging LLC
580 W. Lambert, Unit K

Brea, CA 92821
phone: 800/650-8666 or 714/671-7730

fax: 714/671-7748

e-mail: keith@tkhimaging.com
Website: AIM:sdpkeith