ComputerSearch Corp. is expecting a record sales year, thanks to two acquisitions in recent years and a downtown Buffalo construction boom.
President and CEO John Bruno Jr. said that when the company acquired Liberator Time Clock in 2012, he wasn’t interested in taking on the parking equipment portion of the business.
But he said that Victor Liberator, while selling the company, didn’t give him a choice. If he didn’t take it with him, the deal was dead. But that turned out to be serendipitous for Bruno, whose company will top $5 million in sales and, since the acquisition, installed parking time systems for nearly every major Buffalo construction project.
“I wanted to chunk it off, but Victor said he wasn’t going to do that,” Bruno said. “The next thing we know the HarborCenter is being built, and we’ve done parking time systems for every single other project: the casino, the Conventus building, New Era Cap, and Catholic Health. We just updated Buffalo Niagara International Airport with all new systems.”
Bruno said that employee time clocks and parking systems work similarly in that one tracks the amount of time a person is at work, while the other tracks the amount of time a vehicle is in a lot.
And with a seemingly endless list of construction projects, there’s more work ahead for ComputerSearch, a regional dealer for a major parking equipment manufacturer.
“We are the go-to company for parking industry equipment,” he said, adding that they sell everything from electronic in-vehicle tags, readers, pay stations, barrier gates, ticket dispensers, and all the software to manage it.
Bruno explained that the licensing is territorial, and ComputerSearch covers an area west of Syracuse. A sister company covers the region toward the east, where he said business isn’t as brisk.
“But we’re bursting at the seams with work,” he said, adding that since the 2012 acquisition of Liberator and the 2014 acquisition of Buffalo Time Clock, plus all the construction, revenues for the fiscal year that ends March 31 should total $5.8 million.
ComputerSearch was a $2.2 million company before the acquisitions.
The company also offers payroll services, which tie in to the time clock business. Payroll revenue usually drives the business, but it now represents about 45 percent of revenues. It was surpassed by parking equipment, which comprises about 55 percent.
Bruno said that to continue growing, he’d like to acquire a smaller payroll company, and may do so later this year.