Trey Beall has been in the copier and office machine business since the early 1990s. As president of Gulf Coast Office Products, he has seen these machines get faster, better and more capable over the years. “Just when I think they’ve done it all,” he says, “they have something new on the horizon.”
AT A GLANCE
Top executive: Trey Beall, President
Phone: 225.756.2644
Address: 10424 Plaza Americana Dr., Baton Rouge, LA 70816
Website: gcopnet.com
Gulf Coast Office Products has been a supplier of Savin and Ricoh office machines—such as copiers, printers, fax machines and multifunction machines—since 1977. More recently, the company has branched out into a new product area: interactive whiteboards.
Beall is impressed with these devices, too—and happy to see them catching on at businesses that have been coping with challenges related to remote and hybrid work since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic three years ago.
“It’s almost like having an iPad on the wall,” Beall says. “Anything that you can pull up on an iPad, you can pull up on the whiteboard. But you can also walk up to it with a pen and make notations on a spreadsheet or a construction drawing or something like that. Or you can push a button and turn it into a plain whiteboard. It allows people to have a collaborative meeting even if they aren’t in the same office.”
Beall knows the importance of employees being able to talk with one another and share ideas. It’s a priority at his company, which has more than 100 employees at offices in Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Mandeville and Lafayette. Many have been with Gulf Coast Office Products for years — something that bodes well for the company and its customers alike.
“If you’re a consumer, it’s very frustrating to go to a store, talk to somebody who’s supposed to be a professional but they don’t really know what they’re talking about,” Beall says. “We have a real tenured group here with a lot of experience, and we’re continuing to add to it. The experience we have gives us credibility with the customer when we’re making recommendations. We know what we’re talking about. And the new people coming on board here get to learn from the experienced employees.”
He says the company took advantage of the pandemic to invest in its employees, which ultimately translates to better service for customers. We spent more time on education and training of our staff,” Beall says. “We had the time to do it.”
Now that things are mostly back to normal, Beall says his team is happy to be visiting clients once again, adding that relationships are a crucial part of his business.
“I don’t think anybody grows up wanting to be in the copy machine business,” he says. “But what has been interesting for me—and my favorite part of this job—is the clients and the friendships I’ve developed over the years.”
“So many people have our products, and they rely on us,” Beall says. “CPAs use it to get out tax returns, medical institutions use it, engineering and construction firms use it. Every appointment is different, and with different industries. They use the features and functions of the same unit differently in their application.”
