April 3, 2017

Meet Joe Blatchford of Image 2000 in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Blatchford.

Joe, kick things off for us – tell us how it all started and how you got to where you are today.

Image 2000 was started in early 1992 by Richard Campbell and myself. Image was specifically started during a deep recession in California to fill the need for copiers to businesses that had less than sufficient resources. Image began the sale and service of high end remanufactured Xerox copiers. Additionally, the full color digital copier market was new and represented an additional market for remanufactured products.

Image 2000’s growth in sales of high end copier products produced a forum in which the eventual sale of new products could succeed. In early 1993, the Copystar (Kyocera) line was introduced and within the first marketing years of this line, Image had been named “Dealer of the Year”. Image has been the top Copystar dealer in the United States for the past 9 years running. Image 2000 has grown at a rate of 15% to 25% per year to its present position as one of the largest independent dealer in the western United States.

Since becoming a Copystar dealer in early 1993, Image 2000 has become authorized dealer for Toshiba, Sharp, Risograph digital duplicators, Oce high speed copiers and Kyocera which includes their innovative low cost desktop printer line and we continue to be an authorized Ricoh servicing company.

During the course of our nearly 25-year history, Image 2000 has become a specialist in working in the health care market. Image has been the exclusive contractor for multifunction devices for Cedars Sinai Medical Center for the past 18 years. We recently completed our 5th renewal of our contract with Cedars. Image 2000 has an extensive history with Adventist Health and continuing contracts with Glendale Adventist Hospital and most notably we have been a contractor for multifunction devices for Loma Linda University Medical Center. Other hospital contracts of note are City of Hope National Cancer Center, Henry Mayo Memorial Hospital, and Sisters of Providence Hospitals which include Holy Cross Hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center and Little Company of Mary Hospital, Alta Medical Hospital, Pacific Long Beach Hospital (College Medical) and most recently Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. The fact that we are an independent dealer brings significant benefits to our hospital relationships. We are not tied to any one line of products, so we can bring the best in technology that suits the specific needs of our hospital clients. We are not forced to make a single line of products fit with the needs of the hospitals, much like the manufacturer direct operations like Ricoh, Konica and Xerox.

Image 2000 has continued to grow at a remarkable pace. From our large base office in Santa Clarita, Ca. our Bakersfield office was opened in December 1997 to cover Kern County. In January 1999 the Fresno, California office was opened to cover Kings, Madera, Tulare and Fresno counties. In June of 2000, Image opened its fourth office in Laguna Hills, California covering Orange County. The opening of our Las Vegas, Nevada office in 2002 represented our fifth location and the latest addition has been our Inland Empire office located in Redlands which opened in 2003. Image opened our Sharp distribution office in Buena Park in 2012. A terrific combination of great products and wonderful people has been the basis of our success and growth. We anticipate that Image 2000 will be the dominate force in digital office automation.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Image 2000 has had its share of bumps in the road during its 25-year history. Probably the most difficult task has been growing a business during a recession with no bank debt at all. To this day, we still have no line of credit or bank line.

Image 2000 – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Image 2000 is a privately held company that competes against giants like Xerox, Canon and Konica Minolta. All large corporations with vast resources way beyond a little company like Image 2000.

We have become the specialist in healthcare. For instance, Cedar Sinai has been a client for 15 years. Henry Mayo Hospital has been a client for 16 years. We recently were awarded the Adventist Health Care contract for all 19 hospitals throughout California up into Washington and into Hawaii.

When it comes to healthcare, no one can touch Image 2000!

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
To start a company from nothing with very little capital and make it one of the largest privately held companies, in the Los Angeles area, is pretty amazing. We now have 6 total locations and just moved into our new corporate headquarters in Santa Clarita.

Also, my four children are by far my greatest achievement, on a personal level.

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