Made In Walker

From Typewriters to Tech: Three Generations of Noordyk

• City of Walker MI • Season 1 • Episode 11

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From the humble beginnings of a basement typewriter repair shop to weathering a global pandemic, Noordyk Business Equipment stands as a testament to family business resilience in Walker, Michigan. 

Will Noordyk takes us through his family's remarkable journey, starting with his grandfather who returned from Army service in 1946 with typewriter repair skills that would launch a business dynasty. The story unfolds across three generations – from mechanical typewriters and adding machines to today's sophisticated digital printing solutions and office technology integration.

What makes the Noordyk story particularly compelling is how they've navigated significant challenges. During the COVID-19 crisis, while maintaining their service staff, they faced severe supply chain disruptions that threatened their ability to deliver equipment. Their innovative solution? Sourcing and refurbishing used machines to keep local businesses operational. This adaptability, combined with their willingness to directly finance equipment for promising local businesses that larger companies might reject, demonstrates their deep commitment to customer success.

The family aspect of Noordyk creates unique advantages. Business decisions aren't confined to office hours but flow naturally through family gatherings, creating a seamless approach to problem-solving. This integration of family and business values extends to their community involvement, where they actively support local recreation programs and events throughout Walker. Their recent expansion into Lansing marks a significant growth milestone while maintaining their customer-centric philosophy.

As they approach their 80th anniversary in 2026, Noordyk Business Equipment represents how local businesses thrive by evolving with technology while staying true to their community foundations. Whether you're managing a growing business's technology needs or simply curious about Walker's business landscape, this conversation offers valuable insights into sustainable business practices and community investment. Give it a listen and discover how one family's commitment to service has shaped both a business and a community for generations.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Made in Walker, a podcast that connects you to the people, the stories and the ideas shaping our community, from local innovators to everyday changemakers. We're diving deep into what makes Walker a great place to live, work and grow. Here's your host, nicole DiDonato.

Speaker 2:

Thank you for joining us today. They're a business that has been rooted in Walker, now going on three generations. I'm joined by Will Nordyke of Nordyke Business Equipment right here in Walker. Will, thank you so much for being here.

Speaker 3:

Nicole happy to be here. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

And going on to three generations bring us back to the first generation, how that all started.

Speaker 3:

Sure, sure. So yeah, my grandfather was actually the one that started the company. He started it in 1946 after he got out of the Army. In the Army he was trained to fix typewriters. So when he got out he said that's what I'm going to do for work. He started the company out of his parents' basement in 1946. So next year will be 80 years for us. Oh wow.

Speaker 3:

He got a storefront sometime in the early 60s and grew that. It was a shared storefront and I believe he got his own storefront in 1966. He was doing typewriters, adding machines, cash registers, just kind of growing the business and ended up growing to the point where he needed some more employees. My father started joining the company in, I believe, the early 70s and he ended up taking over moving the store from Leonard to Alpine in the late 70s. He bought the company from my grandfather I believe in 1988, kind of turned it into what it is now with the digital printing printers and copiers and more of the office materials. I think they changed names from Nordic typewriters to Nordic business equipment somewhere in there and he moved from Alpine to Walker on remembrance in 2007, to where we are now.

Speaker 2:

So you grew up around this throughout your life?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we were, I was born and raised in Walker, not too far from where the we are now. So you grew up around this throughout your life. Yeah, yeah, we were. I was born and raised in Walker, um, not too far from where the building is now, and been in love with the community ever since.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yes. And growing up around the family business, did you think one day I'll probably end up here, or were you hesitant?

Speaker 3:

I was told I would and I never thought I would and they they never really pushed it. You know, I went to work with my dad on Saturdays, helped him clean the shop and, like I said, grew up around it and it's a family business. So even when business is done, it's at home. They're talking business, it's family. It's never gone. So I heard about it, I knew about it, but I wanted to work on cars and they were very, very supportive of that.

Speaker 3:

I graduated high and after that I worked on cars for about seven years. That stopped being fun. So I was like well, if you're not doing what you love every day, it's not fun. Find something else to do. Talked to dad and he said, yeah, there's a sales position open, but you know you got to go through the process, go through the interview, interview with the sales manager. So did all that and turned out I ended up being pretty good at it and liked it. And here we are, a couple years later, me and my sister are in the process of buying the company for our parents.

Speaker 2:

Yes, wow. And how is that family dynamic kind of you know helped business or influenced business and how you operate? Yeah, sure.

Speaker 3:

Well, like I said, it's always, business is everywhere all the time for us. So even when we're out to dinner on Sunday after church, business comes up in conversation. It's inevitable. So it's nice because it helps move things. It helps business keep going because we can constantly talk about it and we don't have to have meetings throughout the day with everybody else. But it comes with its challenges too. Sometimes you forget hey, it's Christmas, let's focus on the family.

Speaker 2:

Sure sure.

Speaker 3:

It's good. It's fun working with family.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah. And since you've taken over and become part of the business, what types of changes have you seen as far as technology and through some of the hardships of the economy and such?

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, technology has been changing a lot. The printers themselves haven't changed a whole lot in the past 10 years, but they come with a lot more security and scanning features and people are trying to go paperless all the time. We found out, hey, you still need to print, but we need to come up with some other business solutions to offer. So we have other office solutions like phones and folders, shredders, all that type of stuff. You mentioned hardships.

Speaker 3:

We had a really hard time through COVID, as well as everybody else did, I'm sure, but it was kind of after the fact. So we got through COVID. Okay, we maintained all of our service tax. We'd be able to stay on staff and we got to pay them. They got to work and help maintain the machines that were in the field. For the businesses that were able to remain open, our salesmen did have to take a layoff, and then the following years is really when it hurt was when the supply chain had issues. So we were back full staff, businesses roaring everywhere else. We got offices or people in the office, excuse me and they're selling, but we don't have any equipment coming in to deliver, and if we're not delivering any equipment, we can't get paid. So we needed to come up with a solution for that. We found a lead on some refurbished equipment that we were able to get back into our shop, refurbish ourselves and provide customers with newer machines.

Speaker 2:

We were able to pay our salesmen and move on, and around 2023 it all leveled back out to normal, yeah, and probably feel not quite invincible, but having made through that tough, tough time, okay, you know we got it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah, it was eye opening and yeah, it was challenging. But, like you said, we're dealing with it now too, with the tariffs going on and this is supposed to be a big deal supply chain issues that are going to be coming up. But we got to grasp on it and we got to plan. So it's like, hey, we're, we're not scrambling for the fences right now, we're bringing it on.

Speaker 2:

That's a strong place to be.

Speaker 3:

And that's great.

Speaker 2:

And look, you know, looking forward. Where do you type um see the company once you and your sister kind of take over full ownership. Any ideas or so that you have.

Speaker 3:

So, um, in the past we've always just wanted to stay local and stay in West Michigan. 2020, end of 2022, we were approached by a dealership in Lansing that sold the same brand that we sell and he basically said if I don't sell to you, I'm going to sell to your biggest competitor and it's not going to be good for my customers or you guys. And we said, ah, okay. So that was October of 22. We closed on that company in January 23. So it was a really, really fast acquisition but with that, it was kind of eye-opening of what the company could turn into. And so me and my sister kind of took the lead at the Lansing location and we're growing that business and I think we want to just keep growing. So, as long as we can keep taking care of our customers the way we have, we want to just keep growing and getting after it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, because you're not only serving West Michigan right now.

Speaker 3:

You kind of branched out pretty good for the state, Yep, yep. Like I said, we started in West Michigan and just kind of held our bubble here. But with the Lansing acquisition we go as far east as we just signed a customer in Fowlerville. We go up to Mount Pleasant, Big Rapids, down to Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. So pretty good chunk of central Michigan, if you will.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and if running a family business and you know being involved day to day wasn't enough, you guys are incredible at getting out in the community and actually giving back.

Speaker 3:

We try.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And what's the passion and the motivation behind that?

Speaker 3:

So it's like I said I grew up in Walker and we were always a part of, you know, the Walker Rec League sports the hockey, the soccer, the baseball, the softball. I walk my dog at Walker Park almost every day, so it just feels natural to give back to the community that we enjoy.

Speaker 3:

My sister has four kids under the age of 10, so it's great to have all those events that you guys offer that she can take them to and we can enjoy. And if we can go to them and sponsor them and help give back, why not do both?

Speaker 2:

Yes, absolutely yes. And so your reach is far joy. And if we can go to them and sponsor them and help give back, why not do both? Yes, absolutely yes. And so you're. You know your reach is it's far reaching, knowing that not only are you taking care of the community, but really in more ways than one yeah, yeah, for sure yes and um. You know any examples of like um, uh, significant uh challenges that have like stuck in your mind that you know kind of take you in another direction.

Speaker 3:

Challenges for the company, not so much, I mean other than the COVID thing and just struggling to keep up with technology. But we've had customers that have had issues getting financed. So we've got customers that are new and they don't have credit and they need to get lease approved to have machines so they can do business. They need to get lease approved to have a machine so they can do business. And that's kind of how we're different than some of the bigger companies is we can cut through that red tape and say, well, yeah, the lease company doesn't want to finance you, but we know who you are as a person and you're in our community too. So, hey, we'll take a gamble on you, we'll finance it for you, you pay us a monthly fee and we'll give you the machine, and so that's kind of how we cut through the red tape and cut through some other issues and struggles that other people have.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great that again you guys are right here in our backyard and able to service our community that way. Yeah, and what is something with technology that maybe folks wouldn't typically realize that you deal with all the time, or that could be surprising.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, the printer is a lot more than just a printer. They have a lot of options and a lot of different capabilities. They can scan, they can fax, they can. You can scan stuff right to a specific folder. So there's, you can print from your phone. There's just a lot of different fancy things that go on that people don't think of. They just say, oh, it's a printer and it's not working today.

Speaker 2:

Right, it's a big thing in the middle of the office, but yeah, that's pretty incredible. What other types of things. Do you guys service?

Speaker 3:

So we offer phone systems as well. It's like voice over IP. A lot of people are going away from the big phone companies that using an internet-based fax system, so we have stuff like that. We have other softwares that we offer for a lot of schools, people that need to print sensitive information that they print to a central location so they don't want it sitting out there. So they hit print but it actually won't release until they walk up and scan their id badge or something along those lines. Okay, wow, so different solutions like that. We offer a lot of stuff for print shops, like offline finishing stuff, like cutters, shredders, laminators, folders, anything that handles paper. We can typically have something to do with it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, I love that and you know any kind of fond memories, either from growing up around this or any modern ones.

Speaker 3:

The acquisition of the building in 2007 was cool. We renovated it quite a bit Because what was it before it was? Garter Pool Building before, and so, yeah, we totally redid the look of it. It was a two-peaked sloped roof and now it's one. We added on a garage. Another thing that happened I couldn't tell you when it had to be around 2013 or 14 we had the roof of our barn caved in from snow so that was scary.

Speaker 3:

We got a call on Sunday after church from the cops and oh, come down to work, you're barn collapsed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, those winters had a lot of snow. Yes, they did. But other than that, yes, and what do you want folks in the community to know about?

Speaker 3:

you know your business, even if they didn't know how much you do for the community, sure, just that you know we take a different approach than most companies that are in the industry that we are. We really take a client centric view. We want to come in and really understand what you're doing and how you're doing it and we want to make recommendations. You know we don't want to just be a third quote for you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, we're here to make our lives easier.

Speaker 3:

That's right, that's right.

Speaker 2:

We really appreciate all you do for community, business-wise, but especially beyond. As far as giving back. It means so much to us, so Will thank you so much for being here today.

Speaker 3:

Happy to be here, Nicole. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

And we appreciate you tuning in as well.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Maiden Walker podcast. If you have comments or questions about this podcast, or if you have suggestions for future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please drop us an email at podcast at walkercity. Made in Walker is the official podcast of the city of Walker, Michigan. You can find Made in Walker wherever you get your podcasts.

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Nicole DiDonato

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