Global Garage recently hit its milestone five-year anniversary as the leading online marketplace for reselling parts, accessories, and used equipment in the wide and grand format industry.
Founded in 2009, the company today has over 1200 customers in 37 states and 25 countries. About 40 percent of Global Garage’s business is international, primarily in the Middle East, African, and Canadian markets. Additionally, its printhead cleaning services and parts divisions have grown to comprise 20 percent of gross sales, according to Mike Altreuter, president of The Global Garage, LLC.
“We really have our customers to thank for our continued growth and success,” Altreuter said. “When you first start a business, before you can even develop a reputation you have to develop trust. We do about 110 large and grand format printer transactions a year and we couldn’t do that without the help and support of our customers and dealer network.”
Over the last few years the Garage has added staff to accommodate service needs and growth. The Global Garage Web site has seen more traffic, averaging 6000-7000 visits per month. With a 10 percent increase in sales overall last year, Altreuter said Global Garage will continue to take a “managed growth” approach. “We’re not done innovating and trying to figure out better ways to serve our customers and making our services more relevant to more audiences,” he said, “and we have to continue to win trust everyday.”
