MFP Wars "The Final Five"

COECO signs dealership deal

By John Henderson
Rocky Mount Telegram

Friday, March 27, 2009

One of the oldest office systems companies in the country that is based in Rocky Mount has entered into an agreement to become an authorized Canon dealer.

Carolina Office Equipment Company, known as COECO, was formed in 1921 by Grover Robbins out of a small office supply store in Rocky Mount. It has grown into a diversified digital office equipment company with stores in Clinton, Fayetteville, Greenville, Kitty Hawk, Lumberton, New Bern, Raleigh, Rocky Mount, Virginia Beach and Wilmington.

The company employs 176 employees.

As an authorized Canon dealer, COECO expects to grow more, as it will be selling the full line of Canon digital office products, including monochrome and color copiers and digital presses.

The agreement can only help the company expand even more, COECO chief executive officer Chuck Robbins said.

Robbins said the fact that the Canon line offers the largest supply of digital office products in the country can be a real boost to the company.

“If we do our job, we have a opportunity to double or quadruple the size of our business, which obviously means more employees, more jobs, which is important to everyone today,” Robbins said.

Robbins said Canon has the most comprehensive menu of digital office products in the country.

“Canon pretty much dominates every segment of our industry,” Robbins said.

Randy Humphrey, the general manager of COECO, said the agreement with Canon allows COECO to become a “total solutions provider” for an office.

“We can help with your document management from the creation of the document to retention of the document, the full life cycle of the document,” he said.

Paul Albano, a senior manager for Imaging System Group for Canon U.S.A. Inc., said the company was elated to enter into the agreement with COECO.

“We are very proud to announce this partnership with COECO and to be expanding our coverage into the Virginia and North Carolina market place, to expand our coverage in these important market areas,” Albano said.

Albano said by entering into the agreement with Canon, COECO will be a supplier of products that have garnered numerous awards.

“We’ve been number one in virtually every segment that we operate in,” he said. “In fact, we’ve won awards from industry analysts for copier line of the year, manufacturer of the year.”

Canon also is a popular brand for state and local government contracts.

“We get the opportunity to compete for them (contracts) with the Canon brand now,” Robbins said. “Before we didn’t have the Canon brand.”

Canon products have the federal government’s seal of approval.

On Wednesday, COECO Office Systems employees met with Canon officials in an all-day seminar in breakout rooms at the new Holiday Inn. There, COECO employees learned more about the company’s products and services.

“This is also good for Rocky Mount to have an event like this due to the added revenues it generates for the city,” Robbins said.