For a company that is a little over two and one half years old, LaserAid has been making notable inroads in the industry by supplying high quality parts and services at what many in the industry consider to be the lowest possible prices.

This family owned business, which is headed up by Graham R. Teschke Jr., started out by building fuser assemblies in a garage. A short three months later, Graham and his crew discovered they needed more room to accommodate the orders they were getting, so they moved to a 7,000 square foot facility. With their growth continuing to skyrocket, a little over a year from their original expansion saw LaserAid adding another 3,500 square feet of offices and conference center. Now they boast approximately 12,000 square feet at their headquarters in Dallas, Texas where the company earned sales in excess of $2 million last year. "We started out with fusers, which is the heating element that burns toner to paper in laser jet printers," explained Graham. "We then added inputs and outputs, basically making all the parts that go in HP LaserJet printers." LaserAid, who now remanufactures virtually everything that goes into a printer and printers themselves, is proud to announce that they are becoming an HP certified reseller.

The company’s reputation has served them so well, they really do not have a sales force in the traditional sense. Graham stated that they are strong believers in advertising in trade publications and on the Internet, but most business is due to satisfied customers coming back and by referral business. Graham noted that while he has done some cold calling, the company staff never really has had to do so. "We make sure our product is ‘top notch’ quality and do not use any third party parts," he said. "Instead, we use only OEM rollers and transfer chargers, in our own maintenance kits for repairs, which results in a high success rate with very few problems."

The company’s employee force of fifteen highly trained people remanufactures HP, some Xerox and IBM and sell their products for half the OEM price with a warranty that is twice as long as the OEMs. "The result is that we are already doing $2 million in sales after just 2 years in business," stated Graham. "We maintain approximately $300,000-400,000 in inventory at all times. Additionally, we part machines out, sell separate units, refurbish parts in-house and now refurbish whole printers and sell them. This came about as a result of us realizing that we were refurbishing all the parts that go into machines, and that we could just manufacture the whole machine and sell the entire package to our customers for a lot less than the competition. Now we have a whole separate section in our facilities specifically for rebuilding machines."

With customers worldwide, LaserAid builds products according to their specs by providing 220-volt capability for their international customers and much more. Graham said their biggest challenge has been keeping up with the new products coming out. "We always try to be one step ahead of the competition by fixing problems more quickly and provide refurbished fusers more quickly than they can."

The future is bright for Laser Aid. They anticipate opening a second manufacturing facility in the Philadelphia area to better serve their East Coast customers. Likewise, they plan to open a similar facility on the West Coast the following year.

LaserAid’s customer service is another aspect of their business that is very important to them. Toward that end, they give special attention to shipping to each and every customer. Although they ship via FedEx, UPS, DHL and Airborne, they have an agreement with UPS that provides a major benefit for their customers. "Everything we sell is based on advance exchange, with Laser Aid carrying hundreds of parts in stock," explained Graham. " Our customers have thirty days from the date of purchase to get the exchange back to us. To accommodate them, we offer return labels for five dollars a piece. This means a customer can ship up to 70 pounds for the one price, resulting in a significant savings. For instance, if someone in Seattle wants to buy six fusers from us, it could easily cost them $40.00 to ship them back to us. However, because of the agreement with UPS, we offer them the ability to ship up to 70 pounds of exchange product back to us for just $5.00."

LaserAid demonstrates its high degree of integrity by making sure that they take care of each customer’s needs, no matter what. "At least three nights every week, one of us is going to FedEx or UPS to ship product on an order that arrived after the normal carrier pick up, to make sure the customer gets the product," noted Graham. "We care about what we do". We are not just order takers; we are doing business but we are also making friends!"

Graham is secure in his belief that the industry is strong and will continue to be so. "I think everyone has to have a printer on his or her desks and LaserJet printers, unlike the throw-away inkjet printers, will be around a long time," he stated. "We have seen the OEMs regularly try to throw us a twist with their designs but we have yet to see anything from them that we cannot figure out and remanufacture. Our shop manager,  tests every product before it leaves our premises in our dedicated testing center to ensure the highest quality. When a new machine comes out, he is right there to tear it down and learn everything there is to know about it. That way we will be able to continue to provide the highest quality at the lowest prices."