01732 759725 20 Lee Manning multiples to exit their businesses, but now in a post-COVID world, the multiples that used to be on offer are just unrealistic. This has led to a lot of current owners feeling trapped and wanting to try and achieve the multiples of seven or eight years ago. I don’t think I’ve seen a successful private equity exit from the sector since Apogee, and I think it’s had a fundamental, not necessarily positive, impact on the sector. In particular, we’ve seen talented engineering people leave the industry. Private equity investors cut back as much as they can, and with salary increases dropping, a lot of these people have gone into other areas. We find it increasingly difficult to recruit good people now because the pool is so much smaller than it used to be. PITR: What has been your proudest moment of the past 10 years? LM: I always like a challenge. For me, coming through the ranks and being in a position today to be able to lead a company in the image that I want to do it is something that I’ve accomplished, but I’m not finished yet. FUTERA is fundamentally a different organisation now we have transitioned to an employee-owned business and I’m excited to continue to lead and shape the business with my own morals and standpoints and surround myself with like-minded people. We all want success, we’re all driven and we’re all nice human beings, and that’s really important. knowing how stuff works and learning it for myself. So, working in the print sector made more sense. PITR: What excites you most about working in print today? LM: It might sound corny, but relationships are the best bit. I particularly enjoy the opportunity to have wider tech conversations with people when we’re talking about print. When you sit with IT directors, they’ve often got a really clear vision of how they want things to be, and it’s exciting to be able to get your product set fit into their ecosystem. PITR: And what are the biggest frustrations or challenges? LM: Although the industry has a better reputation that it used to, I still think the legacy perception of ‘dishonesty’ remains, and there’s an element of scepticism similar to the estate agent or used car salesman that we all get tarnished with. That is frustrating. I don’t think it will go away fully until there’s a whole generational change. Commoditisation of print is another – yes, the printer is an endpoint that sits in the corner of the office, but it’s not like a water cooler, it has a fundamental business purpose, enables better workflows, digital transformation and improves productivity. PITR: What (or who) do you think has had the greatest impact in the sector in recent years? LM: Private equity. Pre-COVID, PE investment gave owners significant PrintIT Reseller (PITR): What was your first job in print? Lee Manning (LM): I worked in a telesales team at Canon, selling paper and consumables to Canon contracted customers, around 2005/6. PITR: What led you to enter the sector? Did you choose print by design, or accident? LM: I left school after A levels. The original plan was to go to university, I was going to study business, but I was pretty done with school, and I wanted to get into sales, so I got a job at Phones 4 U instead. I was earning an £8,000 salary and £1.50 commission for every phone I sold. I did it for about eight weeks, then a job came up at Canon working in the telesales team. There was a whole day of interviews, and they probably had 50 people there for half a dozen jobs. I got the job and it was a significant upgrade on my £8k a year salary! But importantly, it brought me into the corporate world and that’s where I wanted to be. Also, I am a tech guy at heart, I’m a bit of a geek, I love Lee Manning, CEO, FUTERA, shares details of his life in print, what he’s learned, and the highs and the lows of our unique and challenging industry My life in print INTERVIEW
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