01732 759725 INTERVIEW 20 Marianne Chamberlain, Sales Director, Data Direct shares her experiences over the past decade, what she’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry A decade in print became VOW, I was there for 20 years, and I really enjoyed my time there. Then, 15 years ago I had a conversation with Patrick Winterbotham, which led to me joining Data Direct and I haven’t looked back since. PITR: What was your first job? MC: Totally unrelated to what I now do. After leaving school I entered a YTS programme working in elderly care. It was really rewarding, and I did enjoy it, but I hurt my back and that meant I had to choose a new direction. PITR: What has been the high point of the decade? MC: This is a tough question, I’d have to say joining Data Direct was my high point, although it’s not strictly speaking within the past decade. So, my answer is two-fold – building the best team, I know that sounds cheesy but it’s true, we really do have the best team and our successes point to that. We are a relatively small privately-owned company, and I am hugely proud of what we have achieved. We doubled turnover from £7m to £14 within one year and in three years grew massively to record £25m turnover, that, combined with winning PrintIT Awards the past few years are undoubtedly among the high points. PITR: And the low point? MC: I honestly can’t think of one. I know for many businesses, COVID was a low point but for us, we didn’t just hunker down and ride it out, we made the decision instead to think outside of the box. So, we thought long and hard about how we could help our dealers sell, especially as print volumes had just stopped overnight. We expanded our offering, entered new sectors and got on the phone to our dealers to see how we could help. As a team going back to basics really worked and we came back stronger from it, the business is now back to pre-pandemic levels and we’re continuing to grow. PITR: What (or who) has had the greatest impact in the sector in the last 10 years? MC: That’s an easy one. For me, it has to be our Managing Director Patrick Winterbotham, and not just over the past ten years. He is really hands-on in the business and has a knack of coming up with some really great ideas, that we can then take on as a team and deliver on. We wouldn’t be where we are today without him. PITR: If you could change one thing about the last decade, what would it be? MC: The only thing I would change is the ability to have more time, in the day, week or year. PITR: What has been your proudest moment of the past 10 years? MC: Winning the EOS Distributor of the Year at the PrintIT Awards for three years in a row! Sitting in the room alongside some of the biggest names in the industry and hearing our name called out was amazing. PITR: Sum up the decade in three words. MC: Resilience. Teamwork. Growth. www.data-direct.co.uk PrintIT Reseller (PITR): You’ve been working in the print and IT industry for more than ten years. What led you to enter the sector? Marianne Chamberlain (MC): You could say it was a fluke or even by chance, if I’m being totally honest it wasn’t a conscious choice! After my first job didn’t pan out (see below) I had to look at an alternative career path. I was interested in sales and tried a few things including selling payphones (remember them!), before I secured a job at ISA which Marianne Chamberlain
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