{"id":70631,"date":"2026-08-31T10:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=70631"},"modified":"2026-08-31T10:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T17:16:15","slug":"mavens-of-ma-production-print-success-peerless-service-drive-ubeo-business-services-to-new-heights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/dealer-spotlight\/2026\/08\/mavens-of-ma-production-print-success-peerless-service-drive-ubeo-business-services-to-new-heights\/","title":{"rendered":"Mavens of M&A: Production Print Success, Peerless Service Drive UBEO Business Services to New Heights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It doesn\u2019t necessarily take a profit and loss statement to identify when an acquisition candidate in the office technology dealer realm doesn\u2019t measure up to a buyer\u2019s standards. During the course of his 40-plus year journey, James Morrissey has witnessed the good, the bad and the \u201cum, we\u2019ll let you know\u201d of prospects that drift in and out of the M&A pipeline. The president of UBEO Business Services, one of the industry\u2019s preeminent dealmakers and a $400-plus million revenue performer, has done enough deals to readily identify gems worth pursuing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UBEO President James Morrissey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The undesirables\u2019 traits, he notes, are readily apparent. Poor and\/or indifferent management. Absent owners. Atrocious service. Outdated technology. Angry, angry customers. One can almost see the perpetual storm cloud that hangs above the headquarters of such operations. These owners aren\u2019t trying to sell as much as they\u2019re attempting to cut bait, hoping against hope that a buyer will look past the lame duck\u2019s many imperfections and see a gem-in-waiting rather than a lump of coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UBEO Business Services CEO Jim Sheffield (second from left) accepts the top revenue producer award from Lexmark, one of the dealer\u2019s OEM lines. Also shown, from left, are Lexmark\u2019s Clark Bugg, UBEO\u2019s John Barbieri, Lexmark\u2019s Sean Endicott and UBEO President James Morrissey<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Forty years has given Morrissey a keen eye for what good looks like, and he knows that reputation is everything in this business. The ability to acquire dealers whose very names are synonymous with quality adds even more credibility to UBEO and increases confidence that the new company\u2019s standards will integrate nicely with its own. The common thread: unparalleled service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UBEO CEO Jim Sheffield<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEveryone\u2019s got a reputation. Our founder, Jim Sheffield, has an impeccable reputation for service,\u201d Morrissey noted. \u201cLook around the industry. Loffler has an impeccable reputation, as does Flesch. The same thing with Jerry Blaine at LDI Connect. Those companies aren\u2019t for sale, but that\u2019s the type of reputation we\u2019re looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also helps to have $50 million or more in annual revenue, which is the sweet spot Morrissey seeks in an acquisition. And someday, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, he envisions acquiring a $500 million behemoth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UBEO’s top salesperson (center) receives her Up Club award from company executives<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A group of UBEO’s UP Club (president\u2019s club) winners participates in the company’s sponsored golf event in Palm Springs, California<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Acquired Tastes<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pride of Austin, Texas, with 60-plus locations spread across 15 states, UBEO has enjoyed its share of reputable acquisitions. One of the biggest coups came in 2022 when Sheffield and Co. obtained Centric Business Systems of Baltimore, a $70 million operation then owned by the estimable Rick Bastinelli. At the time of the deal, Morrissey pointed out \u201cRick is top of the heap when it comes to integrity,\u201d and it underscored UBEO\u2019s discerning eye to add upper-echelon dealerships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another familiar face, albeit not on the same revenue scale as Centric, joined the UBEO ranks back in January: Advanced Business Equipment (ABE), a $5 million to $10 million performer out of Asheville, North Carolina. The dealership was led by Kevin Jackson, who gained notoriety for navigating his company (and the city of Asheville) through the adversity of Hurricane Helene back in 2024. The tireless, relentless mettle that Jackson demonstrated catapulted his already staunch reputation to greater heights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABE was one of three deals that fortified UBEO\u2019s position in the southeast. With two additional signed letters of intent in hand (the acquisition of CMC Business Systems in Midland, Texas, was announced at press time), the dealer remains bullish on growth by acquisition. Having a staunch financial backer is critical to keep rolling on the M&A side, and to that end, Sentinel Capital Partners has been thrilled with UBEO\u2019s performance and quality of prospects in the pipeline. Their support will augment the dealer\u2019s quest to bolster its East Coast profile, particularly markets such as Philadelphia and Boston and down into Florida. The central region\u2014to date primarily Texas-based firms\u2014is still in play as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a pipeline that\u2019s bigger than ever before,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cThese owners have spent 30 or more years building their businesses\u2014they\u2019re not going to turn it over to someone who\u2019s going to chop it up for a couple of bucks. They\u2019re already rich personally, so they would rather have their baby in the hands of someone who\u2019s going to take care of the company and the employees and foster growth. We\u2019ve done 27 deals, and we haven\u2019t laid off anyone in those companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re losing deals to anybody. Any deals we want, we win, and we pay a fair price. You can\u2019t overpay and tip the boat over with that acquisition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growth Pains<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 22-year-old company boasts more than 1,400 team members across its network of facilities, which are largely clustered on the East Coast, Texas and Louisiana in the central region, and Nevada\/California on the West Coast. Having done nearly 30 deals, UBEO\u2019s member companies combined to carry most manufacturer lines\u2014Ricoh, Canon, HP, Xerox, Sharp, Konica Minolta and Kyocera\u2014with a client vertical profile comprised of education, healthcare, legal, government and marketing, among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Production print represents a significant area of strength for UBEO (more on this shortly), and the company also specializes in areas such as enterprise content management, graphic printers and plotters, and solutions that include print and mail fulfillment and litigation services. M&A continues to open doors, as the company\u2019s burgeoning footprint has set the stage to grow the number of larger strategic accounts it services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Production tech Michael Just checks out a Xerox device<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 2026 campaign got off to something of a sluggish start for UBEO. The company made headlines last year when it announced that more than 50 account representatives had been hired across its network, but it can take about nine months for new salespeople to get up to selling speed. Net-new business is complementary to the firm\u2019s M&A growth trajectory, but there\u2019s a fundamental truth that hasn\u2019t been fully embraced on the sales front when it comes to the eroding sales volume of MFPs, particularly within the midmarkets: the MFP won\u2019t always be the center of the sales universe. Morrissey feels about 60% of reps have bought into the concept that a different approach is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a struggle to ask people who\u2019ve been selling one way successfully for 20\u201325 years to sell a different way in order to manage the transition that\u2019s happening in the industry,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cOur numbers look good from a revenue standpoint, although there\u2019s headwind for everybody in that the average selling price is down, and customers in the mid-market are definitely buying fewer machines\u2014if they bought 10 boxes before, they\u2019re buying seven now. When you add in price increases, the need for more net-new customers has become very apparent to gain market share.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Show and Sell<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sheer breadth of UBEO\u2019s production print is quite impressive. Its production lines feature Xerox, Ricoh, Canon and Konica Minolta; HP, Canon and Oc\u00e9 for wide-format machines; and Duplo, Xant\u00e9, C.P. Bourg and MBM for finishing solutions. According to Jeff Galovic, vice president of strategic planning, the company has made extensive investments in hiring production print specialists, analysts and service technicians. Likewise, UBEO sank large dollars into software for both the offerings and internal training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jeff Galovic, <\/em>
vice president <\/em>
of strategic planning<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Technical service superiority has created a significant point of differentiation for UBEO. Galovic points out that many competitors, including OEMs, have cut back on service, opening a window for the dealer to demonstrate its prowess. Tech pilfering attempts have become the norm; Morrissey points out that UBEO\u2019s competitors try to ply them with pay increases as high as 30%. However, the few techs who do jump at the offer almost always return because the competitor organization had no idea about how to run a production operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

UBEO has worked tirelessly to optimize its service department. \u201cWe\u2019ve created a great structure in terms of statement of work and how the process should go,\u201d Galovic noted. \u201cWe\u2019ve developed what we feel is a production program that goes from A to Z and can rival and quite frankly beat out anybody in the business, including the manufacturers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou need to get out to the customer quickly and fix machines the first time because these customers are in high-stress environments, and they can\u2019t afford to be down. You need to be at the top of your game because those situations will escalate quickly if you\u2019re not prepared to take care of the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training has been especially critical, including the aforementioned need to adopt a tack that\u2019s less box-centric. The program, in general, is less about making cold calls or how to write a proposal. The most valuable instruction strikes at the very heart of UBEO\u2019s identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re teaching people in our new-hire training is really about the differences at UBEO, selling the value prop and the things that make us so unique,\u201d Galovic added. \u201cWe\u2019ve really focused our training to that exclusively. Sometimes, we\u2019ll recruit people who may have industry experience. But even some reps with 10 years of experience haven\u2019t had the suite of services in their bag that we offer, so we\u2019ll dive into production, wide-format, software and Pro IT, and teach them all about the breadth and scope of services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ronnie Hay, UBEO <\/em>
director of marketing<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Ronnie Hay, UBEO\u2019s director of marketing, credits Galovic with recruiting highly talented specialists into the organization and devising a structure that benefits from impactful collaboration between the regional leaders and specialists. Their meetings assess the successful and struggling product lines and provide feedback that informs strategy and next steps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the strength of our national footprint. We have so many talented people who\u2019ve come to us from across the industry,\u201d Hay said. \u201cEveryone in that entire system is supportive of each other up and down the organization, and Jeff deserves credit for building that structure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further underscoring UBEO\u2019s commitment to the production print segment is its wealth of showrooms. There are more than a dozen satellites across the country that have high-end production in their showrooms and roughly 24 that have light production on hand. This especially resonates with commercial printers, which comprise 30% of the dealer\u2019s production client list. These customers love to see systems in action, run their own jobs through them, examine the color and quality of output, and ask technical questions. It\u2019s the print manufacturing world\u2019s version of geeking out, in a sense, and extremely impactful in getting the final nudge across the sales\u2019 finish line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Each location has at least one annual hosted event to tout production machines. Morrissey points out that the shows draw upwards of 150 premium prospects, which helps to fill the business pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen customers come in, they can see two or three different solutions, and we\u2019ll cater to the one that fits their needs,\u201d Galovic said. \u201cIf you offer only a single line, you\u2019re trying to force your customer into what that system can do. With multiple lines, we can tailor the right solution for them. While it\u2019s a significant investment, we\u2019re expecting to enjoy continued strong growth this year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filling Funnel<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demand generation marketing has been an impactful tool behind the dealer\u2019s organic growth. UBEO transformed its efforts in that arena from a challenging startup into a highly effective, technology-driven operation. By building the right team, strengthening leadership and leveraging automation, AI and advanced prospecting tools, the company modernized customer outreach to align with evolving buying preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the demand generation team sets more than 4,000 appointments annually and is expected to generate $24 million in revenue, demonstrating how strategic investments in people, processes and technology have produced measurable sales success. \u201cWe\u2019ve been able to integrate AI into our demand generation platform. It\u2019s a very strategic process that\u2019s adapted over time to the way customers want to be contacted,\u201d Galovic added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
UBEO team members commemorate their 2025 Best Places to Work in San Antonio recognition<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
UBEO team members participate in the Magdalena House Mother’s Day Run<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hay believes that dealers who are embarking on a demand gen initiative need to balance quality and scale. \u201cYou have to have the tools, processes and technology to meet the customer\u2019s scale because they\u2019re getting so many inbound messages, emails, phone calls and ads all the time. But you can\u2019t sacrifice quality. We wanted to ensure we maintain our value proposition. This is the first touch that some of our future customers are going to have with us, and everything about it has to reinforce that we\u2019re a quality and value provider.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking of AI, Morrissey notes the dealership has more than 30 team members with Claude platform licenses and countless others who use it personally. It\u2019s been a boon in reducing activities that once took three hours to complete, for example, down to mere minutes. UBEO takes great pains via governance and security to ensure its data isn\u2019t being compromised or unwittingly shared. The other facet of AI is project-driven usage; e.g., UBEO continues to tweak its cradle-to-grave procedure for order processing. Fully realized, it will eliminate redundancies and the need for excessive fact-checking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJeff and I have seen this movie twice already; you could break a company\u2019s back with these IT infrastructure projects,\u201d Morrissey pointed out. \u201cNow we can run models to see if it\u2019s going to work and what the percentage of failure is, etc. We\u2019re focused on standardization, so that when we do implement one system, we won\u2019t have language problems and coding problems and all the other things that come up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Morrissey believes UBEO\u2019s greatest growth opportunities lie in expanding IT services, workflow automation and AI-driven solutions as customers increasingly seek outsourced technology management over commodity offerings. He also sees significant potential in capturing market share as manufacturers reassess their direct customer relationships and increasingly rely on dealers. UBEO\u2019s strong service organization, he notes, positions the company to capitalize on those partnerships while continuing to grow its customer base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlimited Potential<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead, Morrissey believes acquisitions will continue to be in play. He could envision completing a deal to integrate a nine-figure dealership to quicken the company\u2019s march toward being a billion-dollar provider. The UBEO platform is such that it can withstand bolting on dealers of any size, or perhaps five smaller competitors to achieve the same end. Either way, such unions would create \u201ca powerhouse of synergies available to leverage in the market.\u201d Regardless of the MO, Morrissey feels the inability of competitors to deliver on the services they promise to clients will help accelerate UBEO\u2019s quest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m more excited about the future now than I\u2019ve ever been in the seven and a half years with UBEO,\u201d he said. \u201cYou\u2019re either green and growing, ripe or you\u2019re rotting. We\u2019re hungry. There\u2019s a $21 billion market available to us, and we\u2019re at $500 million now. The opportunity is there to take.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It doesn\u2019t necessarily take a profit and loss statement to identify when an acquisition candidate in the office technology dealer realm doesn\u2019t measure up to a buyer\u2019s standards. During the course of his 40-plus year journey, James Morrissey has witnessed the good, the bad and the \u201cum, we\u2019ll let you know\u201d of prospects that drift in and out of the M&A pipeline. The president of UBEO Business Services, one of the industry\u2019s preeminent dealmakers and a $400-plus million revenue performer, has done enough deals to readily identify gems worth pursuing. The undesirables\u2019 traits, he notes, are readily apparent. Poor and\/or indifferent management. Absent owners. Atrocious service. Outdated technology. Angry, angry customers. One can almost see the perpetual storm cloud that hangs above the headquarters of such operations. These owners aren\u2019t trying to sell as much as they\u2019re attempting to cut bait, hoping against hope that a buyer will look past the lame duck\u2019s many imperfections and see a gem-in-waiting rather than a lump of coal. Forty years has given Morrissey a keen eye for what good looks like, and he knows that reputation is everything in this business. The ability to acquire dealers whose very names are synonymous with quality adds even more credibility to UBEO and increases confidence that the new company\u2019s standards will integrate nicely with its own. The common thread: unparalleled service. \u201cEveryone\u2019s got a reputation. Our founder, Jim Sheffield, has an impeccable reputation for service,\u201d Morrissey noted. \u201cLook around the industry. Loffler has an impeccable reputation, as does Flesch. The same thing with Jerry Blaine at LDI Connect. Those companies aren\u2019t for sale, but that\u2019s the type of reputation we\u2019re looking for.\u201d It also helps to have $50 million or more in annual revenue, which is the sweet spot Morrissey seeks in an acquisition. And someday, perhaps in the not-too-distant future, he envisions acquiring a $500 million behemoth. Acquired Tastes The pride of Austin, Texas, with 60-plus locations spread across 15 states, UBEO has enjoyed its share of reputable acquisitions. One of the biggest coups came in 2022 when Sheffield and Co. obtained Centric Business Systems of Baltimore, a $70 million operation then owned by the estimable Rick Bastinelli. At the time of the deal, Morrissey pointed out \u201cRick is top of the heap when it comes to integrity,\u201d and it underscored UBEO\u2019s discerning eye to add upper-echelon dealerships. Another familiar face, albeit not on the same revenue scale as Centric, joined the UBEO ranks back in January: Advanced Business Equipment (ABE), a $5 million to $10 million performer out of Asheville, North Carolina. The dealership was led by Kevin Jackson, who gained notoriety for navigating his company (and the city of Asheville) through the adversity of Hurricane Helene back in 2024. The tireless, relentless mettle that Jackson demonstrated catapulted his already staunch reputation to greater heights. ABE was one of three deals that fortified UBEO\u2019s position in the southeast. With two additional signed letters of intent in hand (the acquisition of CMC Business Systems in Midland, Texas, was announced at press time), the dealer remains bullish on growth by acquisition. Having a staunch financial backer is critical to keep rolling on the M&A side, and to that end, Sentinel Capital Partners has been thrilled with UBEO\u2019s performance and quality of prospects in the pipeline. Their support will augment the dealer\u2019s quest to bolster its East Coast profile, particularly markets such as Philadelphia and Boston and down into Florida. The central region\u2014to date primarily Texas-based firms\u2014is still in play as well. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a pipeline that\u2019s bigger than ever before,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cThese owners have spent 30 or more years building their businesses\u2014they\u2019re not going to turn it over to someone who\u2019s going to chop it up for a couple of bucks. They\u2019re already rich personally, so they would rather have their baby in the hands of someone who\u2019s going to take care of the company and the employees and foster growth. We\u2019ve done 27 deals, and we haven\u2019t laid off anyone in those companies. \u201cI don\u2019t think we\u2019re losing deals to anybody. Any deals we want, we win, and we pay a fair price. You can\u2019t overpay and tip the boat over with that acquisition.\u201d Growth Pains The 22-year-old company boasts more than 1,400 team members across its network of facilities, which are largely clustered on the East Coast, Texas and Louisiana in the central region, and Nevada\/California on the West Coast. Having done nearly 30 deals, UBEO\u2019s member companies combined to carry most manufacturer lines\u2014Ricoh, Canon, HP, Xerox, Sharp, Konica Minolta and Kyocera\u2014with a client vertical profile comprised of education, healthcare, legal, government and marketing, among others. Production print represents a significant area of strength for UBEO (more on this shortly), and the company also specializes in areas such as enterprise content management, graphic printers and plotters, and solutions that include print and mail fulfillment and litigation services. M&A continues to open doors, as the company\u2019s burgeoning footprint has set the stage to grow the number of larger strategic accounts it services. The 2026 campaign got off to something of a sluggish start for UBEO. The company made headlines last year when it announced that more than 50 account representatives had been hired across its network, but it can take about nine months for new salespeople to get up to selling speed. Net-new business is complementary to the firm\u2019s M&A growth trajectory, but there\u2019s a fundamental truth that hasn\u2019t been fully embraced on the sales front when it comes to the eroding sales volume of MFPs, particularly within the midmarkets: the MFP won\u2019t always be the center of the sales universe. Morrissey feels about 60% of reps have bought into the concept that a different approach is needed. \u201cIt\u2019s a struggle to ask people who\u2019ve been selling one way successfully for 20\u201325 years to sell a different way in order to manage the transition that\u2019s happening in the industry,\u201d Morrissey said. \u201cOur numbers look good from a revenue standpoint, although there\u2019s headwind for everybody […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1643],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70658,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70631\/revisions\/70658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}