After finishing his U of M Commerce degree in 3 ½ years versus 4 he joined Proctor  & Gamble in Toronto and became the youngest area manager in the history of the company.  But 3 years later he was back in Winnipeg to start the first family business, Carlyle Computer Products, from his parents’ basement in 1980. Under Derek’s Leadership Carlyle was twice recognized as Canada’s 50 Best Managed Private Companies. And in 17 years went from a basement business, to the largest computer supplies specialist in Canada with 7 offices across the west.  Then in 1997 it was sold to Boise Cascade who merged it with Grand & toy that they had acquired the year before.

Derek was a Top 40 under 40 recipients, and regional winner of the E&Y Entrepreneur of the year award.  He has been at the heart of 7 start-ups, and held over 20 Board Director positions.  Including most recently the Vice Chair of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority ($3 billion budget), and the finance chair of the Wpg. Police Board. In 2006 Derek’s 8^th start up with his sons brought a new business model in the desktop printer fleet management market with Carlyle Printer, Service, & Supplies Ltd.  In 15 years it has gone from zero to becoming the largest company of its kind in Manitoba.

Working with his son Eric is one of the highlights of his business career.  Starting the second Carlyle would not have been possible without his commitment to our Corporate Values that are an extension of our family values. 

Outside of work Derek enjoys golf and member of St Charles Country club, and travel.  He has been to 92 countries in the world with the plan to reach 100.  In the summer his weekend retreat is to Lake of the Woods where is taking up the sport of fishing.  The go to location for long weekends for his two son’s families (which include 6 grandchildren).  Proud to be celebrating 40 years of marriage to Mary and looking toward the next 40.

Carlyle Printers Service & Supplies LTD.

We are a company with deep roots in the computer supplies industry.  The original Carlyle name comes from Carlyle Johannson who started Carlyle Computer Products in 1980 with his son Derek.  At its peak it was the largest computer supplies company in western Canada with offices in the 7 major cities in the west.  In 1997 it was sold to Boise Cascade, and merged with Grand & Toy that they had acquired a year earlier.  Its success was in being specialists in the consumable part of the IT industry, products like paper, ribbons, diskettes, magnetic tapes, and toner cartridges.  When version two Carlyle Printers, Service & Supplies was formed in 2006, we looked at the marketplace of the new millennium and decided that being a supplies specialist was not enough.  The key difference between the original and the new Carlyle is that the new Carlyle Printers, Service and Supplies Ltd. brings together a one stop shop for not only supplies, but for hardware and service as well.  Carlyle has grown dramatically over the last 15 years managing devices throughout North America. 

In March of 2015 Carlyle acquired Canon Canada’s direct business unit located in Winnipeg.  Canon was confident in this reversal of the typical manufacturers buying dealers trend, due to a thorough vetting of Carlyle’s financial and service delivery capabilities.  The result was that Carlyle would become solely responsible for servicing the devices of Canon Canada’s corporate customers located in Manitoba.

Carlyle introduced to the Manitoba market the cost per page for companies’ entire printer fleet.  In the past Copier vendors sold the equipment and charged a cost per page for the service agreement that included parts, toner, and service labor.  Carlyle took that a step further and included all the desktop printers in the office.  Up to 50% of office printing happened on desktops and that area was not being managed.  For the first time a company could identify how much it cost to print a page and could start working on ways to save money by reducing how much they print.

Today Carlyle Printers Service and Supplies provides printer and copier equipment, along with service of those devices, and supplies blended down to a cost per page.  Servicing over 1,200 customers throughout North America Carlyle is responsible for managing service to over 7,500 devices.  With 5 out of 5 of the largest law firms in Winnipeg, 6 out of 7 of the largest credit unions in Manitoba and 62% of the largest private employers headquartered in Manitoba as customers, Carlyle is building on a solid foundation.

We pride ourselves on working with our customers to fully understand their office printing environments and propose solutions that will fit their unique needs and bring them financial savings, while meeting or exceeding the expectations of the users.  Working with our customers to find unique solutions and exceed expectations is core to what Carlyle does.

Recognizing that over all print volume has been and continues to decline Carlyle has diversified into workflow software.  Square 9  is the leading solution in this space helping companies to digitize the office workplace by  replacing paper based manual processes with digital ones.   We are excited to explore this new service with our customer to continue to bring them value-based solutions.