COVER STORY 01732 759725 28 2023 has been a momentous year for DSales. In the year that the company has come of age – celebrating its 18th year in business, a milestone that coincides with the 75th anniversary of the Develop brand, it has achieved a record-breaking turnover and significantly increased the brand’s share of the market. Double anniversary celebrations for Develop continued to welcome new partners into the fold. This year in particular the company has signed deals with a number of new dealers. “We regularly transact with around 120 key channel partners, several of whom have been with us since the very beginning,” Marketing Manager Glenn Kershaw explained. “Partner loyalty is really strong, many of our dealers have become close friends as well as business partners and we’re really proud of that. What we’ve found this year in particular is that we’ve attracted a number of new partners who are now choosing Develop as their leading brand, and that’s largely down to the personal service we provide and our commitment to going the extra mile and supporting them to win new business,” he added. In terms of the value-add DSales offers, Glenn noted in particular the fact it has a fully-stocked warehouse. “We pride ourselves on providing a next-day delivery service to our dealer network and we also continue to offer a comprehensive PDI service for our dealers. In addition, we are renowned for the technical training we provide, something we had to put on hold during the pandemic, however we re-commenced in-house classroom training earlier this year and have a full programme of training courses planned.” Moving with the times Glenn adds that DSales’ company culture is also very people-centric. “From day one Jonathan has had a keen focus on building a strong tight-knit team. We are now 15-strong and just like we have built a lot of loyalty within our partner base, the same applies to our own team, the majority of us have been with the business for a long time. For example, General Manager Caroline Morris has been at Jonathan’s side since 2007, our National Technical Manager Dean Ranton has racked up 15 years, I’ve been here for 13 years, and James [Hosking] has just marked his eighth year.” Just prior to the pandemic Jonathan’s son Archie joined the business. He gained experience in all areas of the business and, having earned his stripes, he was recently appointed Dealer Sales Manager for the North. “We have completed an internal restructure, an initiative designed to enable us to become even more efficient as a complete team and enable us to better serve our partners,” James explained. “I now oversee the entire sales Sales Director James Hosking said that 2023 has been a record year. “There is no doubt that the past few years have been the most challenging in our history. However, we have continued to do what we do best and provide our partners with the support they need. “We have ridden out the storm of lockdowns, office closures, and the supply chain issues, and we have emerged stronger. Turnover this year has exceeded our expectations and indeed surpassed pre-COVID levels, stock levels are now back to normal, and our offering is really resonating with the print channel.” Humble beginnings It’s no secret that DSales was born from humble beginnings. In fact, Managing Director Jonathan Whitworth often recalls during the early days working out of a shed in his back garden that the hardest thing was dealing with cashflow. In an earlier interview with PITR he said: “I closed over £2 million of business from that shed! I can remember waiting for the postman to deliver the cheques so I could quickly cash them in order to buy more stock.” DSales’ partner base initially grew from personal contacts and relationships built over Jonathan’s then 20-year tenure in the market and over the years it has James Hosking Jonathan Whitworth Glenn Kershaw Archie Whitworth Logo evolution Archive adverts Original DSales HQ
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