DATE: Thursday, August 14, 1997             TAG: 9708140465

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LON WAGNER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   41 lines

FLA. COMPANY BUYS BEACH'S ELECTRONIC SYSTEMS THE BUSINESS WILL KEEP ITS NAME AND CONTINUE ITS EXPANSION PLANS.

Virginia Beach-based Electronic Systems has been bought by a Tampa, Fla., company that is assembling a national network of business automation companies, Electronic Systems President Bill Kamarek said.

Electronic Systems got its start 17 years ago selling electronic typewriters, but has grown into a wide-ranging company that sells computers, integrates them into a business' network and then trains its employees.

Global Imaging Systems has bought 19 other office product companies within the past three years and will likely become a publicly traded company within the year, Kamarek said.

Terms of the sale were not disclosed. But Electronic Systems will keep its name and continue with its expansion plans, and its 200 Virginia Beach employees will keep their jobs, Kamarek said.

``It's kind of the best of both worlds,'' Kamarek said. ``We get to run the business. We get to grow at a much faster rate, and have the capability of taking some cash out of the business.''

Electronic Systems had 1996 sales of $44 million, and projects sales this year to be about $60 million. It is adding a 33,000-square-foot training, service and warehouse facility that is expected to open by January.

Electronic Systems considered selling stock to the public to help finance its expansion plans, Kamarek said, but instead sold to Global Imaging.

Global Imaging's financial backing will allow Electronic Systems to acquire other companies.

Kamarek, who was the majority owner of Electronic Systems, and five other employee/shareholders now hold stock in Global Imaging. Selling the company also gave them the opportunity to make ``the next generation of young managers coming up'' shareholders in Global, Kamarek said.

Electronic Systems' customers will not notice a change in the company's name or the way it operates, Kamarek said. And its growth could benefit the region.

``I believe two years from now there will be 100 more employees in Virginia Beach than there are right now,'' he said.

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