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Print.IT Reseller
UTAX (UK) Ltd has recorded its third
consecutive year of double digit growth,
with a 12% rise in turnover from £8.7
million in Financial Year 2012 to £9.75
million in FY 2013.
Established in 1989, UTAX (UK) sells printers
and MFPs through a network of resellers
throughout the UK and Ireland. Its parent company
UTAX GmbH is a subsidiary of document solutions
specialist TA Triumph-Adler, which was acquired by
Kyocera Mita in 2010.
Last year was the fifth in a row in which UTAX
UK has surpassed its profit targets. This, says
managing director Shaun Wilkinson, has enabled
the company to invest in business expansion and
enhanced dealer support.
“In the last three or four years we have been
very good at working with existing dealers and
helping them to grow. Last year all our Top 10
dealers grew significantly with us,” he said.
An example of the kind of support UTAX
provides is its new white label website, which makes
it easy for resellers to promote and sell products on-
line, especially consumables and A4 devices.
Available as a fully fledged e-commerce site
or as a plug-in to an existing website, it can be
customised with the reseller’s own branding,
pricing, special offers and T&Cs. Options include
automatic order submission to UTAX (UK) for
direct shipping and a Live Chat facility.
“It’s another service we offer partners,”
Wilkinson said. “They can either spend 10-15k
developing their own product or they can spend
one tenth of that with us.”
The combination of proactive dealer support
and a broad product range is attracting more
dealers – either because they are dissatisfied with
an existing provider or because they are weak in a
particular area (typically A4) – which is helping to
drive further growth.
“We put a lot of support into helping dealers
sell products. It’s why we get approached by new
dealers. We have a marketing department offering
marketing and telesales to help get dealers in front
of customers. It’s expensive to do but otherwise you
may as well be a website,” explained Wilkinson.
In 2012 UTAX recruited an extra 12 ‘good’
dealers and it hopes to do the same this year. It
also increased the number of employees by 36%
and expanded its £1.2 million turnover direct
services division, which fulfils servicing on behalf
of dealers that don’t have an in-house capability.
“We have quadrupled the number of machines
we look after on behalf of dealers. A lot of smaller
guys say they like this model because it gives them
a fixed service cost and a fixed margin, but we also
do all the servicing for our second biggest dealer,”
said Wilkinson.
05
bulletin
In the news
UTAX achieves double digit growth
for third year in a row
Toshiba TEC is supporting Sharples Group
managing director Mark Brocklehurst and
three other Bolton business people in their
attempt to complete the 2013 Talisker
Atlantic Rowing Challenge, a gruelling
3,000-mile race across the Atlantic Ocean
from The Canary Islands to the Caribbean.
As technology partner for the Bolton Atlantic
Rowing Challenge, Toshiba TEC will provide
communications equipment so that the rowers
can update blogs and make satellite calls while
at sea. Once they leave the safety of the harbour
on 2nd December 2013, the crew will be on their
own for anything from 40 to 90 days.
The Bolton Atlantic Rowing Challenge is
hoping to raise £250,000 for the Bolton Lads and
Girls Club, which offers vital support to vulnerable
children in the North-West of England. Donations
can be made by texting “BLGC04 £(amount)”
to 70070 or by going to www.justgiving.com/
boltonatlanticrowingchallenge.
For additional information and alternative
ways to donate money, including a raffle for prizes
donated by Toshiba, please visit
www.boltonatlanticchallenge.co.uk
...in brief...
Cloud-based document
sharing
Nuance Scan to Cloud software is now available
on Canon’s imageRUNNER ADVANCE platform
of multifunctional devices. The software allows
organisations to automatically convert paper
documents into editable formats and send them
to cloud-based document and sharing services
including Google Drive, Dropbox, MS SharePoint
and salesforce.com.
www.canon.co.uk
Xerox donates printers
Xerox has donated a range of multifunction
printers providing processing, scanning and
printing within a secure environment to The
Prince’s Trust. The devices, installed at the
Trust’s headquarters in London, will help the
organisation save about £7,000 per year.
www.princes-trust.org.uk,
www.xerox.com
Official Pantone approval
Colour scientists at Pantone LLC have developed
Kyocera-specific look-up tables so that users can
print superior simulations of proprietary Pantone
Matching System Colours on Kyocera TASKalfa
MFPs. Pantone scrutinised the output and
declared the overall results to be exceptional.
www.kyoceradocumentsolutions.co.uk
Pantum launch
Chinese printer manufacturer Pantum is
launching two new 30 ppm mono laser printers,
the Pantum P3100DN and the P3105DN.
Targeted at SMBs, the printers have USB and
network connectivity, auto duplex and the option
of a high yield cartridge for low operating costs.
A robust metal frame contributes to a long
product life cycle and high monthly workload of
50,000 sheets. The printers are available through
office products distributor Spicers and cost from
£137.49 ex VAT.
www.pantum.co.uk
Shaun Wilkinson, managing director,
TA Triumph-Adler
Atlantic crossing