IKON Office Solutions will take over operations of the University-owned Copy Center on Kangaroo Dr. along with Devil's Duplicates in the Bryan Center, no later than Jan. 2.
Joe Pietrantoni, vice president for auxiliary services, said that over the past four years, revenues have dropped $650,000 because of a growing number of 24-hour copy centers, such as Kinko's, an increase in home ink-jet printers and multi-functional units that allow a number of computers to print to one source.
Duke, which had a number of bids from other companies, has already signed a letter of intent and soon will sign a contract with IKON. The company already administers individual copiers for the University. All copiers are coordinated through auxiliary services. Pietrantoni said the benefit of having IKON in charge of all copying functions is that two companies would not compete for University accounts.
Jim Wilkerson, director of Duke Stores, said that even though Duke's copy centers will not change their hours of operation under IKON, they will add more services, such as digital enlargements, high-quality digitally developed fliers, large full color posters and CD-recording capabilities.
"It's highly competitive in the street," Wilkerson said. "Those people have access to all the latest technologies and have highly skilled people... because of our inadequacies, [customers] have gone off campus to businesses that can provide these services."
Pietrantoni said the customer base for both the Copy Center and Devil's Duplicates has never been large enough to keep either center open at all hours, and so weekend and nighttime business has gone elsewhere. In addition, the University's stores cannot offer the same technology as other retail copy stores.
"[Because of] changing times, the Copy Center, as a single entity, will only get smaller and smaller," he said. "To go 24-seven as a self-operating system doesn't seem the right thing to do."
Wilkerson added that because IKON, rather than the Division of Auxiliary Services, is running the center, prices will also be lower. Three years ago, the Copy Center was struggling to eke out a 0.3 percent profit, with revenues of $1.662 million and expenses of $1.657 million. A year later, profits plummeted to negative 5.4 percent and last year, to a negative 11.8 percent return, after the center gained only $1.316 million in revenue and had $1.471 million in expenses.
"We have seen a big drop-off in the last three years," Pietrantoni said. "[We don't have] all the pieces available in the field today that is available in a Kinko's format. We've also found out that the industry has stepped up beyond Kinko's."
IKON Office Solutions is a leading provider of products and services in business communications. Pietrantoni said the company has a $50 million operation in Morrisville that has contracts with many Research Triangle Park corporations.
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