TEXTILES.ORG
With the rapid evolution of wide-format print equipment, customers wanted to upgrade their equipment —but before they could do that they had to sell their used equipment.
Mike Altreuter was formally employed by Global Imaging, a value added reseller out of Colorado. “As a new equipment reseller we spent a good deal of time finding homes for used gear, and we found it much more difficult and time-consuming to sell the old machines than it was to sell the new ones. We grew to a point where it made sense to build what we thought would be a loss-leader company to facilitate the sales of new equipment,” Altreuter said. The result was Global Garage, a premier online marketplace for used wide- and grand-format equipment, parts and accessories. Altreuter and two business partners started this new corporation in 2009. Today the company has nearly 300 customers in 37 states and 25 countries.
“We added infrastructure and staffing to accommodate the growth and to handle all of the logistics planning surrounding the sales,” said Altreuter, president of Global Garage. “In the last two years we have focused increasingly on our parts and printhead cleaning services while maintaining growth in our brokered equipment sales.”
The fastest growing segment of the company has been the printhead cleaning services, which Altreuter attributes to word of mouth and repeat business. Printhead cleaning improves the print quality and lengthens the life of costly heads without having to replace them when clogged. The success of Global Garage was founded on a growing market demand, and in meeting that demand with a customer-based solution that offered economical efficiencies without sacrificing quality.