Print.IT Reseller - issue 47

PRINT IT RESELLER.UK 43 INTERVIEW Late summer, Sharp Electronics Europe announced it had acquired Birmingham, Stockport and Cardiff- based office technology reseller Midshire. The business is now a part of Sharp Business Systems UK. This latest deal, which gives Sharp a presence in Wales and strengthens its ability to sell its growing portfolio of business solutions to the commercial and public sector, comes on the back of a string of channel acquisitions, including the takeover of IoT in 2011 and more recently, the acquisitions of Copyfax and CopyIT which boosted the OEM’s presence in the North West and East Anglia. “Acquisitions are a key part of our European overall growth strategy. We’ve completed on several to date across Europe, in fact earlier this year we also acquired Fritz Schumacher AG, a Swiss printing service provider and retailer,” Cort said. “Two years ago, at our channel partner event in Malta, we were very transparent about our future plans. During the keynote address we shared the news that channel acquisitions are a key part of our strategy for growth. However, we were clear in communicating that our objective in this is not to compete with our partners, it’s about plugging gaps in our coverage,” he added. Consolidation has been a recurrent theme in the print market. News of major M&As is a regular occurrence from HP's acquisition of Samsung's printer business, to Kyocera buying Annodata, through to Apogee’s aggressive acquisitive path across Europe and the UK, including its acquisition of Danwood, arguably one of the UK’s largest dealerships. “The US is ahead of the curve, the past few years has seen the emergence of super dealers and they have a lot of power and influence. Across Europe, some of the OEMs are slowing down in terms of takeovers, but we’re now seeing the super dealer trend emerge across the region. The market is getting smaller and more and more resellers are selling up. We have to think about the impact if a competitor PrintIT Reseller spoke to Jason Cort, Director of Product Planning and Marketing at Sharp Europe, about recent acquisitions and the company’s plans for 2018 and beyond Channel is central to Sharp’s growth strategy bought them, and we need to defend against that. For Sharp, it’s about looking at each individual situation and making the call to protect our MIF,” Cort explained. Speaking to the Midshire acquisition Cort confirmed that this is a major event. “If we are to reach our growth objectives, we need growth to come from both our direct and indirect channels. Midshire will continue to operate as an independent business under its own brand name, they are very successful and very good at what they do,” he said. Midshire is a multi-brand reseller, when asked if the plan is to convert their MIF to Sharp, Cort said: “We would hope that they would convert MIF to Sharp but ultimately it’s about them delivering customer value – and if the Sharp offer isn’t right, then they will offer an alternative. Yes, we would hope they will sell more Sharp products, that’s a natural thing to happen.” Visual solutions As well as extensive document solutions expertise, Midshire also provides IT Services, visual solutions and hosted desktop. As part of the Sharp family, the firm is well placed to build incremental revenue beyond the print portfolio to the wider Sharp offer that includes large format displays, videoconferencing and collaboration solutions and cloud services. Today, more and more customers are looking at digital signage, professional displays and interactive meeting solutions. “It’s a natural place for any reseller to go into,” Cort said, adding: “The Sharp visual solutions range provides our partners with massive scope to increase sales of these products.” Sharp has made big steps over the last year or so, strengthening its offering in areas such as smart LFD. It has invested in its product range, in mainstream areas like signage, but also in innovative and new solutions like large form factor video walls and huddle displays. It showcased a transformed product line-up which includes six new product categories at ISE 2017. Products on show included a 70” video Across Europe, some of the OEMs are slowing down in terms of takeovers, but we’re now seeing the super dealer trend emerge across the region Continued... Jason Cort