Print.IT Reseller - issue 56

INTERVIEW PRINT IT RESELLER.UK 39 That kind of leads nicely into print services – we can offer an array of services including asset tagging, PDI, collection and disposal of legacy equipment, hard drive destruction, as well as basic network set-up, training. We also have 38 engineers nationwide. PITR: Can you explain more about your print services offering? JB: As an organisation we have a broad spectrum of customers. We have around 4,000 IT resellers through our IT division, we then have enterprise for example, as well as mobile, supplies and consumer. Ultimately within each pillar, a customer will have a daily contact and an account manager. Our philosophy from a service perspective is that we can offer additional services to what the reseller provides themself, so at no point are we positioned as a direct operation or as a competitor to the reseller, or the vendor. We just complement their offer. Our goal is that 20 per cent of our business will come from services by 2020. We’re currently on track for that – last financial year 13 per cent of our business came from services. Everyone talks about the need for services but the challenge is that whilst we have a tangible offering, there’s been a limited uptake. I can probably count on one hand the number of service opportunities we have pending at the moment. PITR: You said you are looking to achieve 20 per cent of revenue from services across the whole business by 2020, what percentage are you targeting within the print division? JB: If I do a very quick calculation, probably no more than five per cent this year, because we’re starting from zero, but by 2020 we want to be at 20 per cent or more – we aren’t just going to stop at 20. PITR: What’s the biggest challenge within print distribution at the moment? JB: The market has never been more competitive and the margins have never been tighter. Logistics costs are only going up, while margins are going down, so that is one of our biggest challenges. In the main we operate on a percentage margin of our brand, the margin percentage hasn’t changed in the last 15 years, but the average selling price has significantly declined. The pound note margin available is getting less and less, so we have to diversify. The only way we can get around that is by offering enhanced services – do more than just shipping a box, because otherwise we’ll get to a point where we won’t be able to make any money. I think very much with print it affects us more than other technologies, because of the sheer size of the boxes we’re moving. PITR: In addition to services, what other areas are you looking at in terms of diversification? JB: Diversifying our technology offer as well is also key. We’ve had huge success in the OA space, we’re a very ambitious company with very ambitious people, and we’ve seen this fantastic growth over these past two years but I don’t want it to level out. We’re constantly asking ourselves: ‘how do we take this to the next level and offer something new to our customers?’ We offer complementary products such as 3D printers to our dealers, for example. We’ve also recently launched a new brand called Mayku. The Mayku FormBox, a simple to use and powerful desktop vacuum former works with any vacuum cleaner and a wide selection of different materials, enabling moulds to be made in minutes with no software or digital model manipulation needed. It’s Selling products through our general sales floor wasn’t getting the traction that we required so we decided to set-up a specialist sales team Continued...