Heading north

Last year, Northamber drafted in its chairman's son, Alex Phillips, to turn around the UK's longest-standing distie.

The arrival of a new year is often a time for reflection and resolution-making for individuals and companies alike. As 2013 drew to a close, Northamber decided it was time for change and was keen to put its admittedly "tough" year firmly behind it.

With that in mind, and keen to return to growth, the distributor decided action was needed and so signed up Alex Phillips, the management consultant son of its chairman David Phillips.

In his new role as director of strategy, Phillips was charged with turning around the fortunes of the company, putting his five-year stint as a growth strategy specialist - which ended when he was poached by his dad's firm - into practice.

At the distributor's Tech Expo event at Epsom Downs Racecourse - the first of its kind in a number of years - Phillips told CRN some of the foundations for growth had already been put in place before his arrival. "I came in December/January and we'd been going through a tough time in terms of how it looked," he admitted.

"But actually, David saw the problems with the economy up front and decided what not to do, so we bolted down a bit. The timing was right, so David and I worked together to figure where we are going to go instead."

Before joining Northamber, Phillips was a growth-focused strategy consultant at Monitor Group, a role he took on after graduating from the London School of Economics with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in management.
He said he was pleased to finally be able to take his own advice.

"I always found it tough to hand over a project without seeing it through, but that's different here, obviously," he said. "I came up with the strategy and I get to do it too - that's quite different and that's also where it has been really fun. It's funny because I worked with a few channel suppliers as a consultant before, so I knew a little bit about the UK channel. But the core parts of a good business are the same across whatever [market] you're working in."

For the six months to the end of 2013, revenue at Northamber fell 27.25 per cent annually to ￡30.2m. Pre-tax losses stood at ￡690,000 compared with ￡310,000 the year before. Due to Northamber's status as a publicly listed company, Phillips would not be drawn on how the firm has performed this year since his arrival, but he did say he was "happy with the direction we're going in".

He added that Northamber has more assets than its distributor rivals, which will serve it well in future.

"We can make investments and take a long-term view rather than make a quick buck like some of our competitors," he said. "We're one of the strongest disties financially in the UK - that will allow us to continue for another 34 years."

He put his satisfaction with Northamber's financial performance down to his new "narrowline" strategy, which he claims is unique.

"By ‘narrowline', I mean we work with a select few vendors - more aligned with the VAD school of thought in that we know products inside out and we can provide the answers resellers need to keep their customers happy - but also we're the one-stop shop, convenient broadliner," he told CRN.

"It's a unique model we're working on. That's what we want to develop further."
He added that his new model avoids the pitfalls of the other, more traditional approaches to distribution.

"If you compete purely on price, then you are a box shifter," he explained. "But they have [already] got that down really well. Their pricing is extremely aggressive and it's all formulaic. I personally find that quite boring and it's not where we are going.

"On the other extreme, you have VADs who charge a significant premium for extra services. So where I am looking to get Northamber into is what I call ‘narrowline'."
Northamber's Tech Expo, which was the first of its kind for a number of years, attracted over 100 resellers and 50 vendors. Phillips said running such events is an important step in getting the Northamber brand back out there after a difficult few years.

Among those exhibiting was Yahama, which recently appointed Northamber as its first IT distributor, new managed-print signing UTAX and 3D printer vendor Zeepro.

"Zeepro have had phenomenal success on Kickstarter and this is their first showing in the UK," said Phillips. "They're an example of the new brands we are launching in the UK."

"Constantly the message [we are getting] is ‘it is great to see you guys out there again'," he said. "There's a fond place in many hearts for Northamber and we're keen to build on that and do more events like this to do that brand development."