THE BDL STORY

Business Distributors Limited (BDL) was incorporated in Christchurch in 1973 by Garth Huston. Still with a Christchurch Head Office and the same family ownership and management, BDL now operates branches in Wellington, Auckland, Hawkes Bay, New Plymouth, Nelson/Marlborough, Hamilton and Tauranga.

Garth was educated at Christchurch Boy’s High School and the University of Canterbury where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Economics and Psychology in 1968.

Armed with enthusiasm and drive, he started BDL with a 3M dealership for Copiers in shared offices in Kingsley St, Sydenham. His father was also a Christchurch based businessman in the electroplating industry. That industry used a lot of sandpaper, so Garth saw an opportunity to supply good quality industrial sandpaper to industries like electroplating, joinery and door manufacturers. 3M was a world leading manufacturer of abrasives but sold theirs on a direct basis so after a significant amount of letter writing, Garth eventually won the sole agency for a Swiss Industrial Abrasives. BDL Industrial was born and the two distinct business units prevailed for 40 years.

BDL Industrial became the largest importer of sandpaper in New Zealand, with the MDF manufacturing plants across New Zealand as BDL’s largest customers.

The Office Products Division grew too, through adapting quickly to the rapid technological advancements during these years. Being agile, providing excellent customer service and looking after staff are the core elements of BDL’s ongoing success.

BDL has always been at the forefront of technology, from ‘OHP’s, calculators, faxes, spell checkers through to the highly sophisticated MFD Photocopiers that grace every office today.

Over this rich history BDL has been navigated through a full variety of economic cycles by Garth and over the past turbulent decade by Ben and Penny.

Business is never plain sailing and BDL has had its share of adversity. SIA, a Swiss family business was sold to a multinational corporate in 2011. They made the decision to remove the SIA agency from BDL and operate directly in New Zealand, severing the 35 year relationship. BDL had built this business over these many years the same way it approached all its business – by developing and maintaining exceptional local relationships, gaining intimate industry knowledge and practicing ethical and honest business. Losing this agency was a massive blow right on the back of the Canterbury Earthquakes and forced the BDL to make some redundancies for the first time in its history. Under the new agency arrangements run out of Australia, all of this business was lost to competitors within a short time.

These were demanding times but they simply reinforced the deep seated BDL resolve that there was huge strength in being a NZ owned, and run, business. Although already being the largest Toshiba Dealership in Australasia by this time, BDL restructured and redoubled efforts into the Copier Division. Following a successful joint venture entry into the largely ignored Wellington market, BDL won a highly competed national deal which led to opening branches in other regions.

When HP entered the A3 Printer in 2017, they had a mountain to climb to break into a mature market with well established multinational players. Opting for an aggressive and innovative strategy to rapidly gain market share, they saw a branch model was not efficient and pursued a dealer model like Toshiba. They approached BDL to partner with them to break into the SME niche where BDL has such a strong track record.

HP is undoubtedly a global powerhouse, but quite distinctive from other corporates, with family values still at the core of their business philosophy. With strong commitment to investing in its people, sustainable business practices and giving back to the communities it serves  – HP aligns perfectly with BDL values.

This partnership offers the best of both worlds – local family business backed by the resource of one of the world’s most innovative, sustainable, progressive and respected brands. So 2018 saw the beginning of another exciting chapter.

Of course the products, technological changes along with the economic twists are only part of the BDL Story.

Our local team is the heartbeat of BDL. Some of our team have committed the majority of their working lives to this business simply because they like it here, they feel the real benefits of being part of a local success story and because they are treated like family. We are proud to say the average length of service at BDL is 13 years.

Being a close knit organisation means BDL is easy to deal with, nimble and able to quickly fix an issue or source a solution – fast. When you call for Sales, Support or Service you will speak directly with our Christchurch based expert team. BDL people are the best in the Industry and have an unwavering focus on delivering the highest levels of Customer Service, our commitment and loyalty to our longstanding Customer base is at the forefront of everything we do.

Our culture extends into our community as well, being heavily involved through sponsorship, donations to local schools, sports teams, charities & projects.

In recent times we made a commitment to making continued investment into a project focussed on re-foresting New Zealand with natives and we donate a tree to NZ for every printer we sell. In line with our green principles we also committed in 2019 to convert our Field Service Fleet to electric cars.

The most distinctive feature of the BDL style is our ability to see change coming and adapting fast. We don’t just talk about doing things – we do them.

In August 2020 we went ahead with our expansion plans and opened a new HP Sales Branch in Hamilton and have most recently opened in Tauranga. In 2022 BDL opened a 3D printing service with our first HP Jet Fusion 3D Printer, ideal for small productions runs and prototyping facilities. We’ll soon take delivery of our first production machine and will be able to produce larger batch runs. The possibilities with 3D printing represent the start of another exciting chapter for BDL.

At BDL we have young, dynamic team members full of enthusiasm and new ideas, supported by mentors with a wealth of industry and life experience who have been in the print industry longer than any competitors staff. Where other see problems and obstacles in this changing world, we see challenge and opportunities – and the future is bright.