Print.IT Reseller - issue 62

PRINT IT RESELLER.UK INTERVIEW 33 Continued... PrintIT Reseller caught up with Tressa Whitby, General Manager Print, Document Solutions Team at Midwich One-to-one with Tressa Whitby I think one of our biggest strengths is our continued growth in trading accounts. We currently serve around 11,000 resellers Director and Midwich was a customer of mine for many years through Epson on the projector side, but more so with OKI – Midwich was OKI’s number one distributor. So my name came up, they approached me and the rest as they say is history! PITR : How big is the print and document solutions division and what are plans for growth? TW: There are 23 people in the division, comprising specialist product managers, external and internal account managers, on both the print and scan side, as well as sales support and administrators. In terms of growth, we are targeting growth, but there are also areas where our focus is on maintaining our share. In the scan sector for example, we have between 30-36% share, we’ve grown that from around 20% two years ago. That’s come partly from vendor acquisition, last year we took on Epson and the year before that we re-boarded with Fujitsu. But also from adding value in terms of service, understanding the end customers’ needs and not just selling the box. PITR : The distribution model has changed from pure order fulfilment, how are you delivering a value-add to the channel? TW: Some resellers look to distribution to fulfil orders and we will help them with that, but if they need additional support, a service, or assistance with a project rollout we can do that too. Whether it’s identifying opportunities and working with partners to drive customers’ solutions through distribution, providing training or PDI, delivery and installation services, we can help them. I think one of our biggest strengths is our continued growth in trading accounts. We currently serve around 11,000 resellers. Within the sector, there may be others that sell more volume, but from a trade account growth basis, we’re very strong. With all the vendors that we deal with, we’re generally number one or number two. Our reach tends to be a little bit deeper. For vendors looking for leaders in acquisition, that’s where we’re very strong. PITR : What sort of increase in the number of trading accounts are you realising? TW: It varies by vendor, for some, growth is dependent on what kind of promotions they have running through the channel. But as an example, the first quarter of 2019 was significantly up against 2018. PrintIT Reseller (PITR) : You’ve been with Midwich for almost three years now, can you tell me a little bit about your background and why you decided to join? Tressa Whitby (TW): I joined from Epson and prior to that I was at OKI for 17 years. The strongest part of my background is definitely on the manufacturing side, but I’ve also worked in distribution before, as well as for an IT reseller. Midwich was reshaping its document solutions division and was looking for someone specifically with a manufacturing background, to head it up. Typically distribution is very focused on resellers and Midwich wanted better insight into the OEM’s perspective, to facilitate a better engagement with resellers through distribution, it was about bringing vendors and the channel together via distribution in a better way. They went to market and I was looking for a new challenge. When at OKI, I’d previously worked with Jonathan Francis, our Sales and Marketing Midwich celebrated its first 40 years in business on April 12, during which time it has grown to become a £574 million turnover company with 900 employees and 17,000 customers across the UK, Europe and Asia Pacific.