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14
DISTRIBUTION
November 2016 was a record month
for the Exertis print business. But
it was no flash in the pan. In the
two and a half years since Jamie
Brothwell, previously head of channel
sales at Samsung, was appointed
general manager of the distributor’s
print business, Exertis has been
quietly transforming its print
proposition.
Last year was when it all came
together. In a print market that shrank by
-5%, Exertis succeeded in increasing sales
by 38%, with sales of its top four brands
growing by between 24% and 120%.
What’s more, it enjoyed growth across
the board – in retail (up 27%), in B2B (up
62%) and in Office Automation (up 806%).
“This was the third year of our project,”
said Brothwell. “Year 1 was getting things
straight; Year 2 was consolidation and
steady growth; and Year 3 was the time
when we made the investment in people
and structure – and now we're seeing the
results.”
The company
Exertis is part of DCC, an Ireland-based
investment company. Sitting in 67th
place on the FTSE 100, DCC specialises
in distribution businesses across diverse
industries, including oil and gas, healthcare
and technology.
As DCC’s technology distributor, Exertis
focuses on four main areas – IT (including
print), mobile, home and supplies. Its
operations are still mainly UK-based, but
its long-term goal is to be the number one
technology distributor in Europe.
To this end, it recently acquired two
more businesses – enterprise and storage
distributor Hammer and specialist AV
distributor Medium – and has its sights
set on an additional 20 plus acquisition
targets.
Exertis is not relying solely on
acquisitions for growth; it is also investing
significantly in systems, infrastructure and
existing operations to drive organic growth,
including a state-of-the-art, 450,000
square foot national distribution centre in
Burnley Bridge, which opened in January.
Nine brands
Exertis acts as distributor for nine printer
brands, of which it is the UK’s number one
distributor for seven, and four scanner
brands. It also distributes four brands of
3D printer, though this side of the business
is managed via the company’s supplies
business.
In November, the Exertis print business had its best ever month, following two
and a half years of investment in infrastructure, services and personnel.
James Goulding finds out more about the distributor’s evolving print
proposition from general manager Jamie Brothwell
Winning in print
“We acquired the Advent Data supplies
business in the mid-2000s. Effectively
Advent Data provide the supplies and we
focus on print hardware. Moving forward,
we're collaborating a lot closer so that we
bring a united proposition to the reseller
channel,” explained Brothwell.
The Exertis printer business addresses
three markets: B2B (sales of transactional
print from all nine brands to resellers);
Retail (sales of Brother, Samsung and
Epson printers to retail customers); and
Office Automation (sales of managed print
services to OA dealers, including Samsung’s
OA proposition, Lexmark’s BSD proposition
and OKI’s ES proposition).
Currently, revenue is split roughly 50:50
between Retail and B2B/OA.
The print business operates from
Basingstoke (commercial operations,
retail and southern B2B sales teams);
Altham (finance, customer services and
the northern B2B sales team); Norfolk
(set up last year to specialise in MPS and
document management for OA dealers,
also soon to be responsible for large format
printers); Elland (supplies); and the new
distribution centre at Burnley Bridge, which
will also accommodate a printer/scanner
showroom where resellers, dealers and end
user customers based in the North can view
the latest products and technologies.
Print specialists
Brothwell says that whilst Exertis operates
across the technology spectrum, each
product area is run individually, a strategy
that encourages specialism in specific
technology areas.
“In print & scan we own the P&L
and we own the strategy. This approach
means that Exertis is a specialist in many
technologies, rather than just a broadline
distributor,” she explained.
As evidence of the company’s in-
depth knowledge of the printer industry,
you need look no further than the print
Exertis is
investing
significantly
in systems,
infrastructure
and existing
operations to
drive organic
growth
Continued...
Exertis National Distribution Centre, Burnley Bridge
Jamie Brothwell,
General Manager,
Exertis
Exertis Basingstoke office
