01732 759725 Brothwell says that last year Exertis increased revenues in four of these specialisms and even in IT Solutions, where sales declined, it outperformed the market. She puts Exertis Business turnover at circa £300 million and is aiming to double that figure to £600 million over the next five years. Integrated teams Brothwell describes the new structure of Exertis Business as a revolution, not an evolution. Two key elements are: i) the integration of sales and commercial teams so that sales people dealing with resellers/integrators and commercial staff looking after vendor relationships and stock management pull in the same direction; and ii) having integrated sales and commercial teams in each of the five specialisms, in addition to a General Sales team. “Each pillar now has an integrated sales and commercial team working as one. In the previous world of Business, AV, which was a specialism, had dedicated sales and commercial focused into a channel. We also had that in mobile; we had it in components; and we had it in print. And guess what? They were our four best performing areas,” explains Brothwell. “What we’ve done now is increase the amount of focus we’ve got in those areas. We’re bringing in more people, in both external and internal roles, and those five channels all now have dedicated sales and commercial. In AV, for example, that won’t just be into the AV channel but into anyone that’s buying AV. And we’ve replicated that across the five pillars. Previously, a large majority of our business teams were selling different things and weren’t specialists in anything.” Brothwell adds that Exertis is also streamlining the customer experience. “Traditionally, in our business, because of our specialisms, customers might have had more than one account manager. We’ve looked closely at our customers to identify their primary function and have given them one point of contact who has the ability to sell other products to them.” www.exertis.co.uk key areas – AV, Components, IT Solutions, Mobile and Print. Management changes to support the new structure include the appointments of Jamie Brothwell as Managing Director of Exertis Business; Jonathan Sutherland as Managing Director of Exertis Consumer; Paul Jacobs as Trading Director; and Lisa Bird as Sales Operations and 3PL Director. All four report to Chief Commercial Officer Phill Turner. Sitting outside the Consumer and Business divisions are Exertis Enterprise, led by Managing Director Jason Chibnall; mobile phone refurbishment company MTR; Exertis Supplies; and business accessories distributor Hypertec. High growth Jamie Brothwell told Technology Reseller that the reorganisation of the Business division builds on Exertis’s growing capabilities in specialist, high-growth areas. “From when I joined the business 10 years ago, we’ve moved from selling desktop print to also selling floor-standing copier products. We’ve gone from 80% retail to 60% business, and we’re still growing. I’d say we’re now the leading non‑HP specialist print distributor in the UK. We continue to be very strong in Mobile and Components, two businesses where we’re in growth. Then there’s the business that I’ve been running for the last three years, our Audio-Visual business. “When we came out of the pandemic, we weren’t where we needed to be, so I came in with fresh eyes, fresh plans and I’m proud to say that at the AV Awards on November 1 we won two awards: DEI Initiative of the Year, in recognition of what we have done in driving cultural change within the industry; and the big one, Distributor of the Year, which is the crowning achievement of my career to date – taking a business where we weren’t recognised as a specialist and effectively becoming the de facto market leader. That is a signpost for our direction of travel in the future. “Our fifth specialism is IT Solutions. And, again, we’re looking to carve out our niche in the PC accessory and peripherals space with a specialist approach rather than a broadline approach. Effectively, we want to have five specialist distributors under the umbrella of Exertis Business.” DCC’s decision to focus solely on the energy sector, which now accounts for 74% of operating profits, has created uncertainty about the future of DCC Technology, trading in the UK as Exertis. While the FTSE 100 company expects to complete the sale of its healthcare division, DCC Healthcare, in 2025, its plans for DCC Technology are less advanced. In a statement, DCC Chief Executive Donal Murphy merely said that DCC would review its strategic options for DCC Technology ‘within the next 24 months’, following completion of its operational improvement programme. It seems likely that DCC Technology will be sold, but in what form and to whom is uncertain. In the meantime, DCC Technology is continuing to streamline operations. For Exertis in the UK, this includes the recent creation of separate, dedicated divisions for Business and Consumer (including Retail), which will enable the distributor to be more agile and responsive to the market and customer needs. In the case of Exertis Business, the new structure will accelerate its shift to become a more specialist distributor across five Technology Reseller talks to Jamie Brothwell about recent changes at Exertis Business Reorganising for growth DISTRIBUTION 08 Jamie Brothwell
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