Baumgartners sell Image Technologies

by David Reed

July 30,2009

Steve and Lynda Baumgartner have sold Image Technologies of Missouri to an office equipment dealership based in St. Louis.

Image Technologies, a company that was founded in 1995 and won the Columbia Chamber of Commerce Business of the Year in 2007, will become a division of Copying Concepts, a Sumner Group Company with operations in Arkansas and Texas as well as Missouri. The change was effective Monday.

Image Technologies will continue to be the name of the company, all 18 employees will be staying with the company and it will continue to sell the same lines of equipment, including Minolta and Kyocera copiers, Lynda Baumgartner said.

“It’s an easy transition; everything they (Copying Concepts) sell, we sell,” she said. “There will be no hiccups in service, and the staff will actually get better benefits.”

 Lynda Baumgarter said she will be leaving the company at the end of October and will be attending Stephens College to get a master’s degree in strategic leadership, but Steve will continue to run the operation. The corporate office will take over most of her duties, such as human resource management and marketing.

“I cried last week about giving ‘the baby’ away,” she said. “But I got over that. It’s the best for everybody.”  

Their three children have no interest in taking over the business, she said, and they were unsuccessful in finding a suitable business partner.