Interviewer:  Hi, Cary Sherburne and Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink.com and I'm here with Peter Posk, who’s President of BCT out of Florida.  It’s great to see you.

Peter Posk:  Great seeing you, Cary. 

Interviewer:  You know, you guys are kind of a little out of the radar, I mean, we don’t hear a lot about you and maybe we just don’t read the right press releases.  But anyway, maybe for our audience, you could explain a little bit about what BCT does and how the organization has evolved over the years.  You know, it’s a different kind of franchise than what we usually talk about.

Peter Posk:  Yeah, we are very much under the radar.  We’re wholesale only, 37 years in business and it’s almost intentional that we’re under the radar, we’re a trade-only printer so our customers are the franchises that you would be familiar with.

Interviewer:  Hi, Cary Sherburne and Senior Editor at WhatTheyThink.com and I'm here with Peter Posk, who’s President of BCT out of Florida.  It’s great to see you.

Peter Posk:  Great seeing you, Cary. 

Interviewer:  You know, you guys are kind of a little out of the radar, I mean, we don’t hear a lot about you and maybe we just don’t read the right press releases.  But anyway, maybe for our audience, you could explain a little bit about what BCT does and how the organization has evolved over the years.  You know, it’s a different kind of franchise than what we usually talk about.

Peter Posk:  Yeah, we are very much under the radar.  We’re wholesale only, 37 years in business and it’s almost intentional that we’re under the radar, we’re a trade-only printer so our customers are the franchises that you would be familiar with.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  The PIP’s, the Sir Speedy’s, the Alpha Graphics, those type companies.

Interviewer:  And so what type of a production platform do you have then?

Peter Posk:  Historically, we were primarily just duplicators.  And if you look at a plant today, it’s duplicators, it’s true four-color offset capabilities, a lot of digital capabilities, Cannon, Xerox, a lot of back-end finishing equipment, UV coating.

Interviewer:  And how many shops do you have now around the country?

Peter Posk:  60.  60 locations.

Interviewer:  And all US?

Peter Posk:  US and Canada.

Interviewer:  That’s great.  So if somebody, if a printer wanted to work with you to get, either for overflow work or for specialized capabilities like the UV stuff, what do they do?

Peter Posk:  They call us.

Interviewer:  Oh!

Peter Posk:  You know, inside the trade, we’re fairly well known.  You know, if you went to a PIP and we do business with even the office superstores, Staples, the Office Max’s, Office Depot, and if you go to them, they know who we are.  But intentionally, if you go to their customer, the end user, they never know who we are.

Interviewer:  Yeah

Peter Posk:  Our brand is invisible.

Interviewer:  Which they don’t need to, right?

Peter Posk:  Yeah, and our customers, the resellers, don’t want them to know that we exist.

Interviewer:  Right.  Now, if I’m just an individual and I want some business cards or I want a brochure and I called you up and said, “You know, can you print this for me?”  What would you say?

Peter Posk:  No, we’re wholesale only and we would direct you to somebody else.

Interviewer:  Okay.  And so for your franchisees, it’s a franchise model, right?

Peter Posk:  Yes, yes.

Interviewer:  So for your franchisees, what are some of the infrastructure benefits that they have for being part of your organization?

Peter Posk:  You know, I would say now, without a doubt, the biggest one is online technology.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  We developed a solution called orderprinting.com back in 1999 is when we started development of it and right now, that technology is in about half of the Fortune 1000 companies.  And again, you would never know orderprinting.com, because we always brand it however the reseller wants.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  So if you’re one of the Fortune 1000 companies, you may say, well, I order my business cards through, whoever, Staples, or through Corporate Express, through their platform.  And really, oftentimes it’s our technology branded with the reseller’s name.

Interviewer:  That’s underneath that.

Peter Posk:  So, you know, when you look at the expensive technology, you know, to be a franchisee, they get the benefit of partnering with 60 other people and we only sell it through our franchisees.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  The PIP’s, the Sir Speedy’s, the Alpha Graphics, those type companies.

Interviewer:  And so what type of a production platform do you have then?

Peter Posk:  Historically, we were primarily just duplicators.  And if you look at a plant today, it’s duplicators, it’s true four-color offset capabilities, a lot of digital capabilities, Cannon, Xerox, a lot of back-end finishing equipment, UV coating.

Interviewer:  And how many shops do you have now around the country?

Peter Posk:  60.  60 locations.

Interviewer:  And all US?

Peter Posk:  US and Canada.

Interviewer:  That’s great.  So if somebody, if a printer wanted to work with you to get, either for overflow work or for specialized capabilities like the UV stuff, what do they do?

Peter Posk:  They call us.

Interviewer:  Oh!

Peter Posk:  You know, inside the trade, we’re fairly well known.  You know, if you went to a PIP and we do business with even the office superstores, Staples, the Office Max’s, Office Depot, and if you go to them, they know who we are.  But intentionally, if you go to their customer, the end user, they never know who we are.

Interviewer:  Yeah

Peter Posk:  Our brand is invisible.

Interviewer:  Which they don’t need to, right?

Peter Posk:  Yeah, and our customers, the resellers, don’t want them to know that we exist.

Interviewer:  Right.  Now, if I’m just an individual and I want some business cards or I want a brochure and I called you up and said, “You know, can you print this for me?”  What would you say?

Peter Posk:  No, we’re wholesale only and we would direct you to somebody else.

Interviewer:  Okay.  And so for your franchisees, it’s a franchise model, right?

Peter Posk:  Yes, yes.

Interviewer:  So for your franchisees, what are some of the infrastructure benefits that they have for being part of your organization?

Peter Posk:  You know, I would say now, without a doubt, the biggest one is online technology.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  We developed a solution called WordOfPrinting.com back in 1999 is when we started development of it and right now, that technology is in about half of the Fortune 1000 companies.  And again, you would never know WordOfPrinting.com, because we always brand it however the reseller wants.

Interviewer:  Okay. 

Peter Posk:  So if you’re one of the Fortune 1000 companies, you may say, well, I order my business cards through, whoever, Staples, or through Corporate Express, through their platform.  And really, oftentimes it’s our technology branded with the reseller’s name.

Interviewer:  That’s underneath that.

Peter Posk:  So, you know, when you look at the expensive technology, you know, to be a franchisee, they get the benefit of partnering with 60 other people and we only sell it through our franchisees.