Cartridge remanufacturing at Cheese Head Toner. Credit: Bill Olmsted, GazetteXtra.com
Owner of office supplies company expands business and sees success in cartridge remanufacturing.GazetteXtra.com reports on the success of business owner Jamin Arn of Janesville, Wisconsin, who started his office supplies business, OfficePro, in 2003, and has since founded a cartridge remanufacturing company, Cheese Head Toner, that is becoming increasingly profitable.
The company, which was founded in 2009 and formerly known as Recycling4U, is located in a second-storey space above OfficePro and began with refills and rebuilds of four types of cartridges. However, after seeing increasing demand the product range has now expanded to cover 120 cartridge models, and Cheese Head Toner now represents 10 percent of OfficePro’s revenues.
According to the article, the toner used to refill the cartridges “is the only component not American made”, and the remanufactured cartridges “often carry private labels”.
Commenting on his business venture, Arn said: “This is a big growth area for us. Remanufactured cartridges are not regulated, so it’s easy to look offshore and get cartridges at half my price. But the quality is not there, and that’s what we sell.”
Arn also spoke of how all of his businesses support OfficePro and the importance of adapting to change in the industry: “I got into what was a changing industry and was able to adapt. The industry has changed dramatically in the last 20 years, and if you’re still operating an office supply store the way you did 20 years ago, you can see the writing on the wall.”
OfficePro has reportedly been a “regular” on Inc magazine lists of the US’ fastest growing companies over the last five years, with Arn stating that 2012 was the “best year we’ve ever had”.