Business Profile: Premium Recharger, Inc.

Premium Recharger, Inc.

Premium Quality

By Jamie Hamilton

Premium Recharger, Inc. has a family-owned philosophy of taking care of business.  Dealers will feel at home with Premium Recharger’s quality and at ease with their customer service antics that address your customers’ with solutions.

“We like talking to people and learning about what they are doing in their business and how we can help.  We know what they are going through because we built our business from the ground up,” said COO of Erie operations, Richard Mead, III.

 With locations in the East (Erie, PA.) and West (Phoenix, AZ), Premium Recharger can turn around orders in 48 hours to an end location, preventing dealers across the US to store toner cartridges in their facility.

Toners are Their Game

Copiers are Premium Recharger’s roots (see beginnings section) and remanufacturing toners came naturally into their business in ’89 with the creation of Premium Recharger.  With a large service background, they were able to test their cartridges on an existing customer base, achieving a high quality product.

Making themselves into a one-stop shop for distributors, Premium Recharger remanufactures over 400 different cartridges.  They carry mainline toners and specialize in hard to find cartridges, remanufacturing everything from Apple to Xerox. 

A few of their 36 brands of toners include:  Apple, Brother, Canon, Compaq, DataProducts, Epson, Gestner, Lexmark/IBM, HP, Kodak, Konica, Lanier, Mannesmann Tally, Minolta, Mita, Okidata, Panafax, Pansonic, Pitney Bowes, QMS, Ricoh, Samsung, Savin, Sharp, Tektronix, Toshiba, and Xerox.

 “We are a full line re-manufacturer.  If we don’t have it, we will help you source it.  Dealers can’t stock everything, especially if it’s an oddball cartridge and not mainstream.  We’re here to help,” said Mead III.

 Blind drop ships are available at Premium Recharger and they treat every one equally when it comes to quantity.  No minimum order is required to order and pricing is specific to your needs.  There is no shipping charge for orders over $500.

 “We treat everyone the same.  But we have the ability to service any need.  If you need to order 200 cartridges a day, we can handle that.  If you only need 5 a week, we’ll be glad to do it for you,” said Mead III.

 They also have a 48-hour turn around to ship cartridges anywhere in the US, with both East and West locations shipping is fast and inexpensive.  Working with UPS, they have come up with the most inexpensive way to ship cartridges and solve packaging issues that may compromise quality during shipping.

 To look at their current product catalogue and to purchase cartridges online, visit their website at: www.premiumrecharger.com.  For first time users, a login name and password are required.  You can login with the username:  “premium” and the password:  “reman 1959”.  Start your own account to begin ordering, see the website for details.

Price is Not the Issue

Premium Recharger Will Match Prices

Premium Recharger is interested in your business, and they will match a competitor’s price to keep it.  They offer a wide variety of toners, but they also know that this is a market based on price.  To find quality at a price that you can’t beat anywhere, call Premium Recharger.

“If for some reason someone out prices us, show us the price and we will match it.  We don’t want to lose a customer to pricing, it’s not that important.  We would much rather lose that little bit, and keep the future of your business,” said Mead III.

Their advanced exchange program offers dealers an even cheaper alternative.  Sign up for their Core Bank program.  When your customer returns a core to Premium Recharger they will assign it to your Core Bank.  When you need that cartridge, you will receive a discount on your order.  Some cartridges are only available through the Core Bank program.

Family-Owned Quality

“We will never get the big, corporate mentality.  Our understanding of the small business owner building his or her company from scratch helps us work with our customers’ needs.  We have the tools that can help,” said Mead III

They remanufacture cartridges by replacing all components that cannot make a 100% lifecycle.  Each location has a manufacturing facility that consists of clean rooms and technicians that take quality personally.

“We pride ourselves on quality.  Since we are family owned and operated, our employees know that they are the heart of the business and they, especially our technicians, take great pride in our product and our company,” said Mead, III.

Every cartridge is backed by a 100% satisfaction guarantee.  If your customer has a problem with a cartridge they will replace the cartridge or give you a refund on your purchase.

“I would rather replace cartridges so that my customer’s customer is happy, rather than not replace cartridges and cost them business,” said Mead, III, “The only way we would deny anyone a cartridge or refund is if there is something strange like:  a lot of repeats, or that it doesn’t have our markers on the cartridge.”

Here, customer service is also on quality patrol.  Since it is still a family business, there is an air at Premium Recharger of resolving any issue large or small with whatever it takes to solve the customer’s needs and recognize each company as an individual with unique solutions.

“If there is ever a problem, I or my father will handle it.  People feel important when the people that are in charge of the company get on the phone,” said Mead, III.

Beginnings before the Start

Before there was a Premium Recharger, there was Alice and Mr. Richard Mead Sr., parents of Richard Mead II, now the co-owner and president of Premium Recharger.  In 1977, they started a business called Discount Copy where they sold office supplies to the retail market in Phoenix.

In 1985, they bought a business called Premium Copy, where they serviced and repaired copy machines.   Their customer base was solid from the previous owners, and they spent a lot of time with them to make sure that they knew their customers’ needs before moving forward.

The industry began seeing the early remnants of the toner remanufacturing industry in the late 80’s.  Discount Copy saw the trend and recruited their son, Richard Mead II, and Keith Kallstrom to begin learning how to remanufacture.  Premium Copy was then renamed and became the remanufacturing company it is today, Premium Recharger, founded in 1989.

“At the time, everyone in the industry was very open about information, so they learned that way.  But a lot of it was trial and error too,” Richard Mead, III said.

Mead II would deliver all day, while Kallstrom stayed back to build the cartridges.  When the delivery day ended, Mead would join Kallstrom and they would work into the night building the cartridges for the next day.  They worked 16+ hour days. 

The established customer base of Discount Copy and Premium Copy was the test market for the cartridges.  They had a great relationship with their customers and asked them to try the new line.  When quality was established, they released the product on the market.

Today, Premium Recharger is in three locations:  Tucson AZ, Phoenix AZ, and Erie, PA.  Their years of service and quality have branded their place in the industry; and, their family way of practicing business has endured through the generations, keeping customers loyal to their product.

by Jamie Hamilton— in addition to writing business profiles in ENX, Jamie writes and designs ads, brochures, catalogs, newsletters, and technical manuals for companies in the imaging industry.  She can be contacted at:  Tel/ Fax 502-896-1051 or e-mail her at: jamiewriter@hotmail.com.