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DEALER PROFILE
Simon Riley,
Sales Director,
Direct-tec
Ian Mitchell,
Operations Director,
Direct-tec
Twelve years ago, three guys who
had worked together in a number of
dealerships for many years decided
to break away and set up a business
that specialised in the supply of
printers and copiers. Sales Director
Simon Riley who joined Direct-tec
four years later from Sharp, had also
worked with all three partners for a
number of years. “They made me an
offer I couldn’t refuse,” he said.
OEM service
From day one, the trio - John Maryam,
Adrian Crucefix and Peter Stocker, made a
strategic decision to leverage the service
provision offered by its OEM partners
as opposed to running its own team of
engineers.
“The thinking behind this was quite
clever,” Riley said: “Who better to
service and maintain the hardware than
the manufacturer? From a customers’
perspective that was a really compelling
proposition.”
Providing products that are supported
by the manufacturers’ own service
technicians throughout the life of the
contract enabled Direct-tec to offer clients
a reliability guarantee. “From the outset
we stated that if the machine supplied
does not perform to the manufacturer’s
specification during the period of the
contract then it will be replaced,” Riley
added.
Direct-tec was originally a Ricoh
(Lanier) single-line dealer but early on the
directors saw real value in adding a second
line and signed up with Sharp Electronics.
Today it partners with Sharp, UTAX and
Toshiba. Business across the three OEMs
is fairly evenly split. “UTAX gives us a
competitive edge within the A4 sector
in particular,” Riley said, adding that he
believes that Direct-tec is one of UTAX’s
largest resellers, whilst Sharp and Toshiba
offer award winning A3 products.
The company initially rented office
space at Biggin Hill Airport. “Our first office
was above an aircraft hangar and I believe
it housed Bernie Ecclestone’s private jet,”
Riley said. Four years in it purchased its
current HQ in Westerham and at the same
time closed its satellite office in Spitalfields
London, moving all operations into one
central base.
Double-digit growth
Direct-tec has extended its portfolio to
include IT Support, looking after PCs and
servers as well as post room facilities and
has enjoyed sustained double-digit growth
year on year. The business which employs
44 people has an annual turnover of £7
million and is targeting ten per cent growth
this year.
“With the exception of last year when
we invested heavily in a number of areas
(and still achieved 8.4 per cent growth),
we have recorded on average 20 per cent
increase in turnover every year,” Riley said.
“This growth is both organic and through
acquisition,” he added.
Established in 2004 as a hardware-only reseller, Direct-tec has gone from
strength to strength. It has three acquisitions under its belt, more in the
pipeline and has recently opened a new purpose built service centre
Acquisitions drive growth
for Direct-tec Group
Acquisitions
In 2013, the company completed two
significant acquisitions, merging SMS
Digital Office Solutions and Genicom into
the Group, moves designed to expand its
coverage within the UK. Around the same
time, further expansion and sustained
business growth saw the firm open new
premises in Salisbury.
More recently it acquired Yeovil-
based Lynx Copiers which has also been
incorporated into the Salisbury office.
Lynx Copiers worked in close
consultation with Direct-tec for a number of
months, exploring how they could enhance
the products it offers and help maximise
savings by combining purchasing power
and passing savings onto its customers.
The merger will see Lynx Copiers’
customers gain access to products from all
three OEM partners as well as the backing
of a larger service team to support their
engineers during busy periods and holidays.
In-house service
One of the biggest step changes to come
about on the back of its acquisitions
was the decision to set-up an in-house
service operation. “Around six months ago,
we decided to bring service in-house,”
Operations Director, Ian Mitchell explained.
The company now employs 15 service
engineers. “It was a tactical move designed
to give us more control and enable us to
offer a bespoke set of services to MPS
customers,” he added.
The company opened its new purpose
built service centre in May. The building
houses its customer care team who handle
all customer requests for repairs and
consumable replenishment across the UK.
“Our investment in both infrastructure
and people [Direct-tec added 15 new
members of staff to the existing team] -
was substantial,” Mitchell said, adding that
the new service centre will provide an even
better level of service to customers as well
as providing spare capacity to cope with its
ever expanding customer base.
“In addition,” he added. “Our new
distribution centre has enabled us to
considerably increase our stock holding of
both spare parts and consumables. Added
to that we have improved the cut off times
Our new
distribution
centre has
enabled us to
considerably
increase our
stock holding
of both spare
parts and
consumables
