The company was based in Iver, Bucks and spent its first year trading to the local market and in web auction houses. Very soon Promax outgrew its directors’ home and moved north to its current head offices in Upper Tean, Staffordshire. Over the next couple of years Promax built up a good working relationship with R-JetTek, the equipment and consumables supplier in Colorado Springs, USA. From being a husband and wife team the company began to employ a workforce. In 2002 Promax was appointed as R-JetTek’s exclusive UK distributor as well as a Sales and Service Centre for the rest of Europe. Later that year Promax was appointed as the UK Distributor for the German ink manufacturer OCP.
In the intervening years to Promax increased its UK sales in cartridges to end users and supplies to the trade. Promax’s attention turned to Europe and beyond and steadily grew European sales to the same level as those in the UK. Trading on such a scale saw the appointment of a third director, Kate Bradshaw, to manage logistical operations.
Now with a few years of experience under their belt, the Promax production team were able to refill almost every inkjet cartridge going and research new ones for themselves. This left Chris with time to exploit his engineering experience to research and develop Promax’s own refilling equipment and tools. New premises were taken in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent to accommodate a workshop and increased stock levels.
Around 2005 Promax identified an emerging market trend that was showing large scale remanufacturers being replaced by small high street refill shops. A lot of these shops were hand filling cartridges because all the refilling equipment on the market was too big and expensive for their output. Promax set about putting this right and released the VA System in 2006. The Mini Boiler cleaning system followed in 2007 to equip small refillers with the same level of technology as their larger counterparts. In developing a relationship with refill shops it became evident that there was a need for technical support that customers could rely on not just for support with Promax products but to advise on refill techniques and troubleshooting. The Technical Team was formed in 2007, with over a decade of refilling experience between them, to deliver this service.
In 2008 the Burslem workshop and warehousing facilities were vacated in favour of a large factory building in the centre of the City of Stoke-on-Trent to accommodate the growing output of the workshop and ever increasing stock levels. Promax continues to work closely with OCP Inks as well as other suppliers to deliver the best quality products to the industry across the globe.