dealer conference
On June 10, UTAX (UK) marked its
25th anniversary year by announcing
a fourth consecutive year of double-
digit growth. Last year turnover grew
18.4% to £11.6 million, following
a rise of 12.6% in the preceding
financial year.
In the three years since its last partner
conference, UTAX (UK) has increased
turnover by 203%, and in his opening
address managing director Shaun
Wilkinson announced plans to double
turnover again by 2017.
Much of UTAX (UK)’s recent growth has
come from a big increase in sales of colour
devices, particularly A3 MFPs, up 308% in
the last three years.
“Six or seven years ago, the colour
product perhaps wasn’t as good as it could
have been. Now it is,” said Wilkinson.
“We’ve done exceptionally well on A3
colour. We launched the A4 colour products
about four years ago and they’ve really
helped as well. We didn’t have an A4
colour MFP. Now we have a good range
and that range is being strengthened in Q1
next year.”
He added: “The rest of the market is
fairly static. We have seen some good
growth in printers but not as high as A4
colour and A3 colour.”
In addition to colour, UTAX (UK) sees
solutions as a major opportunity for
growth.
At the partner conference, it announced
a new system monitoring analysis
reporting tool (SMART), which gives
partners complete control over the remote
monitoring and configuration of solutions
and hardware. It also demonstrated several
new solutions that will provide partners
with new revenue streams and help them
deliver managed print services.
Wilkinson told
PrintIT Reseller
that
interest in solutions was already strong –
with a 400% increase in pre-sales activity
in April and May – and has become even
Going for
growth
UTAX (UK) celebrated its first 25 years
with a partner conference at Carden Park
near Chester where managing director
ShaunWilkinson announced plans to
double turnover in the next three years.
businesses, take on new sales people and
gear up for growth.”
To this end, UTAX (UK) is continuing
to recruit new personnel. The company’s
headcount has already grown from 13 to
more than 40 people in just three years
and, in the next six months, Wilkinson
plans to take on an additional four area
sales people and at least two more
professional services people.
“We need to increase business levels
from the existing customer base and
recruiting those people enables us to put
more support on the ground to do that,”
explained Wilkinson.
One recent recruit, Wade Lewis, has
been taken on to head up UTAX (UK)’s
new dedicated IT distribution channel,
an important new business area for the
company.
“We see a big opportunity in IT
because a lot of IT companies aren’t selling
printers,”Wilkinson said. “It’s a case of
attacking that channel and really taking
on the HPs of this world. We don’t believe
they do a particularly good job. Other
manufacturers have tried to segment the
market and say to the IT guys ‘We’ll hold
this box and you hold this box’. We’re
coming at it from a completely different
angle because we’ve got a whole range,
professional services, a direct services
facility and installation facilities. We’re
saying ‘You can go to your customers with
the whole range. We’ll do the infrastructure
bit and the logistics bit; you just take your
share of the click’. We think it’s quite an
attractive proposition.”
A lot has changed since UTAX (UK) was
established in Newbury in 1989. In its 25th
year, the company is in a stronger position
than ever, offering even more opportunities
for partners to grow and prosper.
See the next issue for more details about
UTAX’s new range of solutions and details
of its reseller award winners.
A traditional
dealer may
not have the
knowledge
to go
and sell
software and
solutions.
stronger since the new solutions were
unveiled.
“More and more customers have
switched on to the fact that they need
solutions and, more importantly, the
dealers are switched on to the fact that
they need to be talking to their customers
about this. The pipeline for software
products and solutions-based products has
gone through the roof. This is definitely the
way the market is going,” he said.
Solutions will also help partners deliver
managed print services, which UTAX (UK)
supports with a direct service and support
division that has already installed more
than 500 machines and 100 software
implementations for resellers, as well as
managing 3,500 machines on their behalf.
“A traditional dealer may not have the
knowledge to go and sell software and
solutions. We can help them go to the
customer and understand their requirement;
we can help them put a proposal together;
we can help them install the equipment;
and support it for them as well. It allows
them to compete for deals that they would
otherwise be excluded from and would
probably lose to bigger players in the
market,” explained Wilkinson.
Dealer recruitment
On top of an expanded product and
solutions portfolio, UTAX (UK) hopes to
increase turnover by continuing to expand
its dealer base, which now numbers 84
partners – 30% more than three years ago
– with a particular focus on fast-growing
businesses and under-represented regions,
including Scotland.
“Some of our partners have been very
loyal, but they either won’t or can’t grow
their business,” said Wilkinson. “For us to
grow, we need to get into bigger partners
that are growing, and we need to help
those partners we do have that want to
grow. We need to help them acquire other
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